United We Fall
by Stargazer1989
Summary: Dean, Sam, and John Winchester stumble across Alex Taylor, a young, sarcastically witty, and clever huntress who finds herself becoming a part of the family. But that also means she's a main target for the mysterious Demon that haunts the Winchester's pas
1. Chapter 1

_Author's Note: With all the heated debates concerning whether Dean Winchester should have a love interest or not, I thought it would be fun to write a story _with_ a love interest!_

Alex Taylor leaned on the hood of her late father's black '69 Ford Mustang, silently gazing at her childhood home with tears welling in her eyes. Alex brushed them away with a sniff, thinking back to the night of her eighteenth birthday.

_Evan waited outside in his silver Mercedes for Alex, he could hear her shouting at her parents inside and kind of hoping she'd be upset enough for a little pick-me-up sex afterward._

"_Would you stop trying to control my life?!" Alex yelled angrily at her mother, Rachel, and her father, Nick. "You just had to choose tonight to do this, didn't you? Can I not enjoy myself for five minutes without you swooping in to make me miserable?"_

"_Alex, we only want what's best for you, you know that!" Rachel told her, throwing her hands in the air._

"_Well this is straight out of a soap opera…" Alex muttered to herself, then raising her voice so her parents can hear, "I don't really care what you want, I'm going to Stanford."_

_Alex wanted to go into Law Enforcement, and two weeks ago, she'd received an acceptance letter from Stanford University, her school of choice. Then today Alex got another acceptance letter from Brown…The school both her parents had attended. Apparently Alex was supposed to be a perfect daughter and follow in her parents footsteps, but Alex was kicking and screaming every step of the way._

_Marching up the stairs and into her bedroom without waiting for a response, Alex grabbed her sweater and purse. When she turned around Alex just about ran into her parents, she scowled and pushed past them, irritated that they'd followed her upstairs. Alex was just about out the bedroom door when she stopped suddenly and stared at her Mom and Dad, "I hate_ _that you're always trying to make decisions for me." She paused, wanting to hurt her parents in the worst way she could, "Why the hell did you have to do this tonight? It's my birthday for God's sake! I _hate _you."_

_Alex nodded with satisfaction when her parents flinched, "Alex…please." Nick said gently, but Alex cut him off._

"_Save it, Dad." Alex turned around and walked out the door, calling angrily up the stairs, "I'll see you later!"_

_All kids have fights with their parents, but it didn't meant they hated them, and Alex was no exception. She loved her parents more than anything in the world, but to bring up a sore subject on the night of her eighteenth birthday was just to much for her to take. _

_It was almost four o'clock in the mourning when Alex returned home. Evan gave her a quick kiss good-night, deciding not to push his luck too much after Alex had given him a verbal whiplash for trying to seduce her into having sex. Evan was cute, but that was really all that Alex saw in him. _

_Alex was your typical high-school prep – High Honors student all her life, cheerleader, on the varsity volleyball and basketball teams, always surrounded by the cute, giggling girls that everyone wants to be, and to top it all off she was dating Evan, the varsity football captain. Oh, and she hunted supernatural beings on the side._

_Nick's father, Daniel, was the town crazy, but Alex was always seen "humoring" her grandfather by looking over articles of recent strange murders and deaths. Everyone just believed she was going along with the old man's crazy stories to make him happy; no one every guessed that Alex and Daniel were _actually_ researching dangerous beings, hunting them down, and killing them. When Daniel died three years ago, Alex continued hunting on her own, but was a little more discreet about it._

_Alex was exhausted after a night of fake IDs, clubbing, and bar hopping. After all the alcohol she'd consumed, all she wanted to do was make it into her bedroom before collapsing. The house was pitch-dark as she scrambled up the stairs; Alex flicked the light on in the hallway as she walked toward her room._

_As Alex passed by her parents' bedroom, her head reeled when she smelled a sharp, metallic scent in the air. _

"_What the hell…" She mumbled to herself, gently pushing the bedroom door open, the metallic smell was twice as strong inside the bedroom. _

_Alex couldn't see a thing inside, but the first thing she noticed was a dull, reddish glow in the corner of the room. All her muscles tensed when the figure moved toward her, one claw-like hand reaching in her direction, and then it disappeared like a puff of smoke. _

"_Mom? Dad?" Alex said quietly, after seeing the spirit hovering around she was terrified of what she might find. Her instincts screamed, panic welling deep inside her stomach, as Alex flicked the light switch up and her parents' bedroom was flooded with light._

_Nick was face down on the floor, a large pool of blood forming around his upper body and seeping into the carpet. Rachel was lying on the bed, her legs draped over the end, and blood spattered across the headboard of the bed. A long gash ran across the front of her body, starting at her thigh and ending near her throat. That metallic scent was the smell of blood._

"_Oh my God! No, no, no!" Alex pleaded a little hysterically as she ran to her father, rolling him onto his side and placing two fingers just underneath his chin on his neck. When she didn't feel a pulse, Alex tried to keep a hold of her emotions, but felt her tears spill over. She stood up quickly and rushed to her mother, also checking for a pulse…checking for any signs of life. _

_Alex backed up slowly away from the bodies, stopping only when her back hit the wall and she couldn't go any further. She fumbled in her pocket for her cell phone, dialing 911 as her legs gave out underneath her and Alex slid down the wall to the floor._

_The operator picked up and Alex said hurriedly, "I need an ambulance!" Her voice shook despite her effort to stay calm, "My parents…" Alex started crying, she gasped for breath, no longer talking to the operator but more to herself, "Oh God…my parents are dead…" She whispered shakily._

"_Where do you live?" The operator's calm, almost bored voice came from the other end, but Alex wasn't listening._

_Alex dropped her phone, saying aloud that her parents were dead made it so final. She pulled her knees up to her chest, hot tears rolling down her cheeks, and hid her face in her arms. _

"So, a married couple, Rachel and Nick Taylor, were found by their eighteen year old daughter two weeks ago. The cause of death was a large cut along the front of their bodies, dying from blood loss. All the doors were locked, windows too, they had an alarm system even, but no one heard or saw anything. Also, there were no signs of breaking and entering or burglary." Fifteen year old Sam Winchester rattled off bits of information from a newspaper article he'd stumbled across online. His shaggy brown hair hung in his brown eyes as he scanned the computer screen. "Definitely sounds like our kind of problem. And this girl…" Sam referred back to the article, "Alex. Whatever killed her parents might come back for her, we should at least look into it."

John Winchester sat upright when he'd heard the names of the victims, "You said their name was Taylor?" He asked Sam, reaching across the café table to turn the laptop screen toward him. Dean Winchester, on the other hand, wasn't paying much attention to either his Dad or brother; he was too preoccupied checking out the waitress.

"What is it?" Sam asked. Dean leaned on the back to legs on his chair and Sam used his leg to push upward on the bottom of Dean's chair. Dean had to grab the table to keep from falling over.

"What was that for?!" Dean hissed, turning a little red when the waitress giggled at him.

"Pay attention." Sam muttered.

"I was!"

"You were too busy looking at her ass." Sam motioned toward the waitress.

"You should've paid attention."

"You get stupider by the day."

"Shut up, Sammy!" Dean kicked Sam in the shin underneath the table.

John sighed as he watched them, "Would you two knock it off?" Sam and Dean gave him innocent looks, who knew they were fifteen and nineteen years old? They sure as hell didn't act like it. "Let's go." John stood up, taking his coffee with him as they walked outside to the cars.

Dean and Sam headed over to Dean's eighteenth birthday present from John. A '67 Chevy Impala, and his pride and joy, Dean treated the car as if it was his own flesh and blood. John, however, opened the door on his huge black truck, the kind you'd be scared to see following you on a dark night, got in, and slammed the door.

Both vehicles pulled out of the café parking lot, head for Alex's hometown of Champaign, Illinois.

Alex wiped away the tears on her face and glanced up at the house again. Immediately after meeting with her lawyer and learning that her parents had left her everything, including the Mustang she was leaning on, Alex had gotten a realtor and her house sold within a week.

Most of her belongings, and her parents' belongings, were donated, with the exception of a bag of clothes, a few necessities that Alex needed, and her grandfather's weapons and the like that he'd left to her after his death. She was torn between wanting to get out of Champaign as soon as possible and staying to find the spirit that killed her mom and dad. Alex could hardly stand living in the apartment she'd rented downtown, because it was too close to her old house. The guilt was too much, after the fight, and after the things that Alex had said to her parents…She just wanted to get as far away from there as she could.

Alex flung herself down on the hood of the car, feeling the cold black metal against her back, her legs dangling over the front of the hood. How was she supposed to decide? Leave and kill whatever paranormal son of a bitch she came across? Or stay and avenge her parents?

"This must be it." Sam said aloud to Dean as they pulled up to a very elegant looking house in a fancy, upper class section of Champaign.

Dean parked behind Dad's truck and whistled when he saw the Mustang parked out front of the house, "Nice." He said, admiring the car.

Alex angrily wiped away her tears so whoever had just pulled up wouldn't have to see her crying, she hated appearing weak in front of anyone. Alex sat up straight, bringing her feet up to rest on the front bumper.

Glancing back at the two vehicles that had just parked behind her own car, Alex saw an older man get out of a large truck, and two younger boys get out of a black Impala. Alex couldn't help but make a mental note about how creepy the three, classic, black vehicles must've looked to anyone who may have seen.

Alex waited for them to notice her first; if she didn't have to deal with anyone right now, she wouldn't. Alex watched them walk up the sidewalk to the house. She couldn't help but notice how adorable the two younger boys were, the one with shaggy hair was tall and lanky, not quite grown into his body yet, but he wasn't quite as tall as the other guy, who looked to be around her own age. He had short hair, she loved the way he had it styled in a messy little mohawk, she let her eyes travel downward as they walked further away from her.

But just when she thought she was going to get off the hook and wouldn't have to talk to anyone, the oldest of the three turned around and looked straight at her. Alex's eyes snapped back upward to the man's face and she stood up, recognizing him.

"John? John Winchester." Alex smiled, "The last time I saw you, my _grandpa_ was playing hero and rescuing from that shape shifter. It was really kind of embarrassing to watch an old man save your ass."

John smiled and laughed, "You weren't very nice to me then either."

"You were full of yourself, looks like you still are." Alex said good-heartedly.

Dean and Sam turned around too, and as soon as Dean saw Alex he grinned in that sexy little way of his while Sam just rolled his eyes at his brother's vanity. But Dean had reason to want to turn on the charm; Alex was about five foot eight inches, wearing a cute light blue Roxy t-shirt that clung to her curves nicely and accented her blue eyes, and tight jeans, showing off well-muscled arms and legs. Her dark brown hair hung down a little past her chin, perfectly straight with a few natural blonde highlights.

"Alex, these are my sons, Sam and Dean. Boys, this is Alex." John introduced the three of them, and Alex smiled at the two guys.

Dean's mouth was slightly agape in a stupid looking smirk as Alex grinned at him and said wickedly, "Close your mouth, you look like Dustin Hoffman in _Rain Man_."

Sam and John smirked, and Dean looked like he'd been slapped, he wasn't used to women treating him like anything less than the love of their life.

Alex turned back to John, "So what are you doing here? Please don't tell me you're here to give me a hug, a sympathy casserole, and tell me everything's going to be okay."

"Not exactly." John told her.

"Well, I can give you that hug, if you're interested." Dean threw in clumsily and Alex, Sam, and John all giggled at him.

"We're here to help." Sam finished.

Alex led the guys into her apartment; it'd taken her a while to convince them that there was no point in them staying in a motel when she had the room for them to stay at her place. It didn't take John long to settle in and start drilling Alex with questions after she'd told them all that happened the night of her parents' death.

"So this spirit, you're sure that's what it is? Not some kind of demon or creature?" John asked.

"I'm not positive. I could smell blood, but I could have sworn ozone was mixed in there too. Although I'm not sure why it looked the way it did. I mean, if it was a spirit, then most spirits just take on the appearance of themselves when they were alive, right?" Alex replied.

"True, but some may choose a different form. You couldn't see its figure clearly?"

"Right, it was kind of like looking at a really fuzzy picture. All I noticed for sure what its hands, they were like claws…or daggers, that's probably what it used to kill my parents." Alex said miserably.

"Did they say or do anything odd before that night? Like something was after them?"

Alex frowned, "Don't you think that I would have told you? I probably know just as much about hunting as you do, so stop treating me like I'm some pathetic, defenseless victim who has no idea what she's dealing with."

The guys all just gazed at her, and Alex sighed, "No. Okay? Nothing odd, nothing out of the ordinary."

"We should check out the library, look into the property, your family history, any similar murders, you know?" Sam said, and the others nodded.

A few hours in the local library and Alex was about ready to start beating her head against the wall. Dean was drumming his fingers on the table, John was mumbling to himself while he was scanning through books, and Sam kept on sighing every time he ran into a dead-end. Alex rested her head on her hand and bit her lip, trying to resist the urge to throw a book at each of their heads.

Suddenly Dean looked up, "You said you had a fight before you left with your boyfriend?"

Alex sighed, "Ex-boyfriend. And yes, I said we fought…I only said it about a million times." She told him irritably, rubbing her temple in an effort to get rid of her headache. Evan had dumped her a few days after her parents' death, he couldn't stand all the stares that they got from people while in public.

"So what if this thing _isn't_ a spirit. What if it's actually some kind of creature that feeds on pain, anger, and the like?" Dean pushed a book toward Alex, and she glanced down at it, a picture fitting her description of the figure she'd seen in her parents' bedroom on one of the pages.

"It's called a Danava, according to Indian mythology they were known to cause trouble where there was a sacrifice to a god or gods, they'd pretty much trash the place and desecrate the sacred ground. Hundreds of years later, they evolved and began feeding on the sorrow and rage that they caused, only making them stronger. Now they don't even have to create the emotions themselves. Danavas come out every ten years or so to feed, targeting one person or family. Once the Danava is done sucking the hate out of people, it kills them and feeds on the grief from the victim's friends and family as dessert." Dean said, catching Alex's eye, "Which means you could still be in trouble."

Alex paused, contemplating, then switched the subject from her safety, "How do I kill it?"

"You?" Sam said curiously, eyebrows raised.

"Me."

Dean glared at her angrily, "Did you not hear what I said?"

"You mean the part about how _I_ might be its next victim, and how _you_ might end up getting yourselves killed if you come with me? Yea, I got that." Alex replied calmly.

"You have got to be the stupidest, most stubborn girl I've ever met!" Dean said loudly.

"I could say the same to you." Alex's voice was icy as she glared at Dean. "I'm not letting you get hurt on my account."

"_You've _known us for a week! Not exactly the perfect time to start acting all controlling, don't you think?"

"Exactly! A one week relationship isn't worth you dying over!"

"Would you shut up!" Sam put in, looking intimidating for a fifteen year old, and succeeding in making Dean and Alex shut their mouths. Sam paused, making sure they'd stay silent, and said firmly, "We're coming with you, Alex."

Alex almost looked like she was going to start a verbal combat with Sam, of which she was guaranteed to lose, but thought twice about it and sighed, "Fine. How do we kill this thing?"

Dean glanced back down at the book, ".44 caliber rimfire cartridges with iron bullets."

Alex frowned, "I hope you know how to make those. Most rimfire cartridges are .22 caliber, they used to be made as large as .44 in the past, but not much anymore so we'll probably have a hard time finding the cartridges. Not to mention most bullets are lead, not iron."

Sam, Dean, and John all smirked, "How do you think we got to be so successful?"

"You nervous?" Dean asked Alex, waiting for Sam and John, who were busy getting the special rounds they needed.

"No." Alex said shortly, shifting uncomfortably.

"Of course you're not."

Alex shot Dean a mean look, "Shut up."

Dean shrugged, grinning, "Sorry!"

Alex rolled her eyes, trying to look at anything but Dean and avoid any awkward and potentially embarrassing situations while she was with him. So complete silence isn't awkward? She fiddled with a knife she had tucked up her jacket sleeve.

Dean, on the other hand, was totally in his element. He was enjoying the anxious and edgy feeling he was getting from Alex. Feeling confident, are we? Dean glanced sideways at Alex, she had her arms crossed underneath her chest and was drumming her fingers against her opposite arm. Dean, still grinning, quickly swooped down, one hand gently cupping Alex's face and the other going to her ass like a magnet. But before his lips even reached hers, Dean felt something cold against his neck and froze.

Alex was surprised that he actually had the nerve to try that, and she'd done some quick thinking, to let Dean kiss her, or to not? There was one part of her that said, "Hell, yea!" and then the other part said, "Nah, let's have a little fun first." So she quickly undid the thread knots holding the knife to her wrist and brought it speedily up to Dean's neck. All the while thinking, "Thread: One dollar and fifty eight cents. Knife: Twenty-three dollars. The look on Dean's face when he feels cold metal pressed against his neck? Priceless."

Dean turned a little pale, his mouth parted as if he were still going in for a practice session of CPR, and his eyes wide. Alex had the dull side of the knife against his throat, but he didn't need to know that. She smirked at him, "It's a good thing you're good-looking."

This time it was Dean's turn to be surprised when Alex took away her knife and stood on tip-toe, pressing her lips a little below his own, then a little to the side, and again a little below, teasing him. Dean caught her lips with his own and brought his hand up again to cup the side of her face. He gently parted her lips with his, she tasted kind of like cinnamon and he smiled inwardly with pleasure when she didn't hold anything back. Good thing Alex had been chewing on Dentyne just seconds before, huh?

Of course, their first moment together just had to be ruined by a car door slamming outside.

Dean pulled away reluctantly, but still taking in Alex's sweet scented breath as she breathed lightly on his face.

Sam was the first one through the door and Dean and Alex quickly stepped back from each other while Sam stopped and stared at them, smirking. "What were _you _two doing?"

"Nothing!" Alex and Dean said in unison, with equally innocent tones.

"Uh, huh."

"Seriously, Sammy!" Dean told him, trying his hardest to act above suspicion.

"No, really! I believe you." Sam continued smirking at them until John came in the door behind him.

"So, why am I doing this?" Alex asked as she stood in the middle of the living room of her old house.

Each of the Winchesters looked a little uneasy as they found areas to wait where they could keep an eye on Alex, but she couldn't see them from the living room.

"Because you're our only possibility for luring this thing out." John replied automatically, "Now take this."

"Great…I love being used as bait." Alex muttered, but dutifully took the handgun John was holding out to her, loaded with the special ammo, as the guys positioned themselves out of sight.

It didn't take long for Alex to get bored of standing in the middle of the room, after about twenty minutes she'd sat cross-legged on the floor and whipped out her cell phone to play Pac-Man. She only turned the sound off when she heard John hiss her name warningly from where he and Sam were hiding in the kitchen.

Another twenty minutes and Alex was making odd noises with her mouth, giggling when she heard Dean snort with laughter in the dining room.

Two hours just _fly_ by when you have nothing to do…Not! Alex was busy trying to get a pencil she'd taken out of her pocket stuck in the ceiling and didn't even notice a dull red flash off to her left. Sam, John, and Dean were close to dozing off and after hours had gone by with no action whatsoever, they weren't very attentive.

So what does a Danava have to do to get some attention? Clawing its way into Alex's hip sounded good.

Alex let out a scream, more surprised than anything else, and scrambled for the gun that had managed to drift six feet away from her while she was fidgeting with boredom on the floor. But her scream was enough to put the Winchesters on edge, all three of them jumping to their feet.

But when you interrupt a Danava right before they're about to eat…well, it's like trying to get a fat kid off of a cupcake, they throw a fit…

Dean found himself pinned against the wall, trapped between the dining room table and a wall; while Sam and John were bombarded with kitchen knives and other various sharp utensils. See? This is what Alex got for trying to be nice and leave the buyers of her house nice things rather than pack them up and donate them!

Alex tried to pull herself away from the Danava and reached her arms as far as she could in an attempt to get a hold of the gun. She bit her lip, trying to keep from screaming as the Danava's claws sunk deeper into her hip and thigh, dragging her closer to itself. Alex felt panic well up in her stomach when her fingers were just inches away from the gun and the Danava hauled her away from it. Her mind flashed back to the night her parents were murdered, all she could think was, "Oh, God…this is how they died…How could I let this happen to them?"

"Alex!" Dean, Sam, and John all yelled from different rooms as Alex tried fighting against the Danava with fists and kicking…needless to say it wasn't working and the Danava's other claw-like hand slowly crept up to her chest.

John, Sam, and Dean finally got a break; the Danava lost interest in them as it came in closer for the kill and Sam and John quickly ducked out of the kitchen while Dean shoved the table onto its side and rushed into the living room. All three of them loosed their gun clips into the Danava, glaring at the thing as it shrieked and writhed in pain, finally dying in an explosion of red light.

Alex lay there for a second, shocked, as the guys knelt next to her and Dean put a hand underneath her arm and brought her into a sitting position.

"That's the last time I throw pencils at the ceiling while I'm being used as bait." She said, her eyes wide as she stared at the spot where the Danava had been seconds before.

Sam, Dean, and John grinned at her as John said, "One can only hope."


	2. Chapter 2

Sam supported Alex through the door of her apartment, trying to help ease some of the white hot pain shooting through her hip and thigh. He had his left arm underneath her right shoulder and around her waist, her right arm over the back of his neck as he held onto her right wrist with his left hand. She was leaning heavily on him and wincing every step of the way while every once and a while Dean would dart in and try to help Sam bear some of her weight. Sam maneuvered her body so she was facing him and tried lowering her onto the couch, but Alex was way too stubborn to let him do everything for her.

"I'm fine!" Alex insisted for the hundredth time, her face a little pale from blood loss, "Honestly!" She pushed Sam away and tried standing on her own, only to fall backward onto the couch in her living room. "Ok, maybe not…" She said, smiling weakly, "But I get brownie points for effort, right?"

Dean tried smiling back, but he was too busy worrying about her. He kneeled in front of her and gently peeled the shredded jeans away from her hip, inspecting the bloody gash underneath it. "We should take you to a hospital…"

Alex grimaced, "Stop fussing. It's not as bad as it looks, and I'm sure you've dealt with worse." She breathed deep a couple times, a little light headed, and then put a hand on Dean's shoulder to help steady herself as she stood up. "Thank you…for everything." She met each of their eyes, looking sincerely gratified by what they'd done tonight. "But I think I've got it from here."

After they heard Alex close her bedroom door, Sam turned to Dean with a wicked gleam in his eyes, "You two seem friendly." When Dean didn't say anything Sam just kept staring at him, smiling slyly.

Dean scowled at him, "Stop looking at me like that!"

"Like what?" Sam asked guiltlessly.

"Like…" Dean couldn't figure out a good comeback, "Shut up."

"Don't act like I didn't see you back at her house!" Sam said with a smirk, thoroughly enjoying watching Dean squirm.

"You _couldn't_ have seen anything, because _nothing_ happened."

"For as many times as you've lied to the authorities, I'm amazed at your lack of talent right now." Sam let off on the teasing tone of voice a little bit, "You've _never_ acted like this with a girl. Why the sudden change?"

Dean shrugged, still trying to act like the whole situation wasn't getting on his nerves at all, when in reality he was confused about the way he felt for Alex. Hell, no waitress had ever made him feel this good! Not even that psycho red-head from Washington who'd slipped drugs into his Latte a few years back…He was amazed at how a one week with Alex was better than any other one-night-stand relationship he'd had.

So sex really _isn't_ the most important thing in Dean's head…Who knew?

"So maybe I like her! Why do you have to act like it's some huge deal?"

Sam thought Dean would keep playing stupid, so this threw him off track a bit, "You like her? You admit it?" Sam stared at his brother, thinking to himself, "_Who are you and what have you done with my brother?_"

Dean couldn't help but smile, "Yea, I admit it. I like her…a lot."

"As in, you'd like to get into her pants and leave before she even wakes up in the morning? Or as in, you actually _like_ her like her?" Sam said.

The kid tried acting like an adult, but he was still a pre-teen at heart. Cooties were still a major threat in Sam's book.

John, on the other hand, was actually impressed with the way Dean was acting…after seeing him go after girls like a horny dog on someone's leg, he'd would be more than happy to have Dean stop acting like a tom-cat and settle with Alex, at least for a little while.

Dean laughed and shook his head, "I can't wait until you grow up…Can we just go to bed?"

XXX

It was around two in the morning when Alex sat straight up in bed, cold sweat dripping down her chest and back as she ran her hand over her face. Breathing deeply, trying to calm herself down, she swung her legs out of bed and walked to the bathroom. She flicked on the light and glared at herself in the mirror, thinking, _This is ridiculous…_

She closed her eyes in an attempt to forget the nightmare she'd had, the same one she'd _been_ having for the past three weeks.

_Alex watched as a fourth person, like a ghostly double of her past self, as her parents tried to calm the "past Alex" down._

_With every word that Alex said to them, Rachel and Nick grew more and more upset, their grief was obvious on their faces. She watched as a single tear rolled down her mother's cheek and glared angrily at the Alex who was too busy bitching about her "miserable" life to even stop and look at her parents. _

"_I'm so sorry…" Present Alex muttered for her own comfort, knowing her parents couldn't hear her._

Alex opened her eyes and felt a bubble of anger swell in her stomach. Still looking in the mirror, she frowned at her reflection, _How could you treat them that way?! How the _hell_ could you do that to them?! _ She closed her eyes again, putting a finger to her temple to ease the headache that was throbbing just above her ear.

_Her father was holding her mother around her waist as Alex stormed past them, both of them looked like they could break down any second, and when Alex turned around and told them straight to their faces that she hated them…_

Alex made no effort to stop the tears that squeezed their way out, falling into the bathroom sink as she leaned on it. Her Mom and Dad had looked so shocked and horrified when Alex said those three words to them. That bubble of anger moved up to her chest, boiling inside her, making it hard for her to keep herself from ripping her own hair out in frustration.

The next part was always the worst. She hadn't been there when her parents were killed, but Alex always heard their screams of pain, their scared voices calling out for each other, and for Alex, as their bodies were ripped apart…the scent of blood still fresh in her mind.

For all she knew, it was her fault her parents died. Alex had been the reason that house was filled with so much pain and anger…she lived like a goddam queen, thanks to her parents, but yet she always found something to complain about, something that wasn't picture perfect about her life, and she'd blamed it all on her Mom and Dad…It was her fault…

_For all I know, it was my fault they died. _Alex thought to herself, _It was my fault that that house was filled with so much pain and anger…I lived like a goddamn queen, thanks to them! But I always found something to complain about…something that wasn't picture perfect about my life, and I then I blamed it all on them…It was my fault…It was my fault…_

Alex's eyes snapped open again and she saw herself in the mirror, she was so angry at herself for everything that had happened, everything that she'd done in her life, that that rage burst inside her chest and mixed with her own grief. She wasn't even thinking when she brought her fist up and slammed it into the bathroom mirror, spraying glass shards all over the floor and cutting her hand and wrist.

The surprise cut jolted her back to reality and she moaned in anguish, not caring about the new cut on her hand as she sank down onto the bathroom rug, crying.

Dean was just coming out of the second bathroom when he heard the mirror break, "Alex?!" He rushed into her bedroom, his stomach giving a small lurch when he didn't see her in bed.

"Alex!" Dean said, raising his voice so she could hear him and peering around the bedroom, he saw the bathroom light on and rushed over to it.

When he pushed the door open, Dean saw Alex sitting on the floor, glass scattered everywhere, and a few drops of blood spattered on a few of the shards. "Alex…" She immediately brushed away the tears on her face and stood up, Dean assisting her by placing a hand underneath her arm, "What happened?"

Alex was horrified to see Dean standing in the doorway in his t-shirt and boxers, pissed off at herself that she had attracted his attention and now he had to see her like this. "Nothing…it's nothing, I'm fine." She stammered, her body still shaking with grief.

Dean put a hand on either of her shoulders, feeling her shake, and pulled her close, lightly kissing the top of her forehead to comfort her and calm her down. Instead of resisting him, as he expected her to, Alex leaned into him and rested her head on his chest, one of her arms around his waist.

After a few minutes, Dean gently pushed her away and looked her in the eye, "What happened?" he asked again.

Alex sniffed and relayed the nightmare she'd been having since her parents' death. "They gave me everything I could have ever wanted, and they didn't deserve to be treated that way…" She sighed shakily, "It's my fault they're dead, Dean."

Dean actually flinched he was so shocked, "Alex!" He glared at her, upset with her for even thinking that she was the one responsible for their murder, "It is _not_ your fault that they died! It's that son of a bitch Danava that killed them, _not_ you!" he told her firmly.

Alex's tears stopped flowing as she gazed into Dean's eyes, she was surprised at the heated reaction her words had gotten out of him. But the way he said it, and the look in his eyes, made her believe him. "I'm sorry…"

Dean pulled her close again, closing his eyes as he kissed the top of her head, wishing her could do something to take away all the hurt she was feeling. "I wish this had never happened to you, Alex…I know what's it's like to lose a parent," his breath shuddered as he exhaled, "and I wish that you didn't."

She pulled away and glanced up at him, the tiniest of smiles on her face, "But then I never would have met you." She said honestly.

Dean silently tended to her wounds for the second time that night, cleaned up all the glass in the bathroom, got her back into bed, and made sure her emotions were comfortably back under control before turning to go back to the living room and go back to sleep.

Who knew this devil may care, both guns blazing, shoot now ask questions later kind of guy could be such a sweetheart?

"Wait." Alex sat up in bed, smiling shyly as Dean turned around to face her, "Don't leave."

Dean happily obliged, settling into bed next to her. Within minutes, Alex was sound asleep again with her back pressed against Dean's chest, and his arms wrapped around her.

XXX

Dean was lying on his back when he propped himself up on his elbows, glancing around Alex's bedroom in slight disgust.

She was definitely used to the good life, she'd been living in this apartment for three weeks but she'd hired an interior designer the first day she moved in. Her walls were a very light brown, accented with some darker cocoa browns and different shades of gray. There were pointless things hanging on the walls, like some paintings centered around a tiny shelf that had just one flower vase and fake flowers in it. The comforter on her bed was a light coffee colored suede, with cream colored silk sheets underneath and silk pillow cases. There was a leaf pattern accent on the top and bottom of the walls and going around the doorway into the bathroom that was just off of her bedroom, a beautiful cast iron lamp stood on one side of the bed, a mahogany bed-side table standing on the other side, the few make-up items she owned were organized neatly on top of her vanity dresser in the corner, and brown satin shades were pulled closed over the glass door that lead out to a small balcony. Dean could have pointed out hundreds of other pointlessly attractive items, but Alex came out of the bathroom and he smiled at her.

"I think that's the first time I've ever slept with a woman _before_ having sex with her." Dean said matter-of-factly to Alex, who was tying on a bath robe.

Alex crawled onto the bed, putting a knee on either side of his hips and sitting lightly on his lower body, she put a hand on his chest and leaned down close to his face, "Sorry I broke your record." She told him, giving him a little kiss as a mock apology.

Dean sighed happily, "Hmm…" He stretched his neck upward and kissed her forehead, slowly moving down to her lips, "You'll have to make it up to me." He stopped an inch or two from her lips, grinning inwardly when she gently brushed her lips against his, begging him to just kiss her, but he'd rather tease her. "Maybe, if we act quick, you can save my reputation."

Alex smiled ruefully and rolled off of the bed away from him, turned around and walked toward the bedroom door, "We should go say good-morning."

He wanted to tease her? Well, two can play that game.

The confidently happy look on Dean's face melted and he rolled his eyes, "Do we have to?" Alex just smiled at him and walked out the door.

Sam was helping himself to Alex's stash of sugar-packed cereals when she and Dean walked into the kitchen. He was thinking, _I gave the guy hell because I figured he was only acting this way to get her in bed…looks like he may have done just that. I really like Alex though. I swear if he hurts her I'll never let him hear the end of it…_ "Morning!" Sam said, giving Dean an "_Oh, you'll never hear the end of this." _look.

"Hey, Sam." Alex said pleasantly, ruffling Sam's shaggy hair, and grabbing the box of _Reese's Puffs._ "Where's your Dad?"

"He went to get coffee, he should be back soon." Sam replied through a mouthful of cereal, just as John was walking through the door.

John paused to look at Alex and Dean, who were sharing the same chair, "Well you two look comfortable." His demeanor came off more threatening then he intended as he watched them.

_Alex is sweet…But the more I think about it, the more this seems like a bad idea. What happens if she gets hurt? Or worse? I'm not sure I can stand seeing the boys get close to her, and then watching them fall apart when she's gone…I like her just as much as the boys, but maybe I'm the only one who knows what's best for them, for us all…This has to stop._

Alex and Dean exchanged looks, and then they both smiled at John sweetly. He shook his head and took a seat opposite them, handing she and Dean a styrofoam cup of coffee each.

"Thanks." Alex murmured, she tried to look into John's eyes, but she couldn't hold it for long and she was already starting to feel uncomfortable under John's scrutinizing gaze and shifted on Dean's lap.

He could understand how she felt. Dad could be pretty intimidating when he wanted to. Dean wrapped an arm around her waist and let it rest in her lap as he easily stared right back into John's eyes.

Sam was eating slowly, his eyes switching back and forth between Dad, Dean, and Alex, and, after he missed his mouth and dropped _Lucky Charms _and milk all over his shirt, occasionally back to his spoon.

It's like watching a really, really quiet horse race…Alex ate dirt right out of the gate, but Dean and John are holding strong. The only question is…Who's going to trip first?

After a minute or two, Dean started tapping his foot lightly, but still staring his Dad straight in the face. Alex rubbed his leg gently, trying to give him a little bit of comfort, and it was enough for Dean to finally say something, "What's your problem?"

John sighed, _I'd rather go back to the staring contest then tell him this…_ "Dean," He gazed at both of them, trying to sound sensitive, but somehow coming off as more of a bully. "Could I talk to you, alone, for a second?"

"No." Dean said simply but firmly.

Alex moved both her hands up to the hand Dean had resting in her lap and held it in hers, _What the hell is with him? What could I have done that would make him hate me overnight?_

"Dean." John said decisively.

"Again. No." Dean said, determined. _I swear if he doesn't spit it out soon, I'll kill him…_

John took a drink of his coffee and set it down on the table, harder than he planned on, splashing a few drops of coffee on the table. "Fine." He sighed, running a hand over his face, before continuing. "I don't think this is a good idea."

"You don't think _what_ is a good idea?" Dean asked, genuinely curious.

"You and Alex."

"What?!" Dean scowled at his Dad, gently pushing Alex off of himself and leaning forward.

Alex moved to a chair next to Dean, but still across from John, and frowned at him, "I don't think that it's really your business, John." She told him quietly.

"I'm his father, Alex, everything that he does my business."

"That's not fair, Dad!" Sam piped in, shocked that this was what the show-down was all about.

"Stay out of this, Sam!" John snapped.

"Don't you dare yell at him for defending her." Dean said protectively as Alex shot Sam a small appreciative smile.

John laid off Sam immediately and got back to the subject, "What if something happens to her, Dean?"

"Like what? You think she's going to get killed? You don't think I know that it's a possibility?"

"I don't think that you should fall in love with the girl and then fall apart when she dies!"

"Okay! Number one, _stop_ talking about me like I'm not here! And number two, _stop_ talking like I just died!" Alex snapped, shooting a nasty scowl at John and Dean both.

Dean reached over and took hold of her hand again, then turned back to John, "I've seen you and Sam almost get yourselves killed more than once, Dad. I've gotten myself into sound rough situations too…I _know_ what the risks of our lives are." Alex squeezed his hand gently and Dean stopped to let her talk.

"And so do I." Alex met John's eyes again with a determined look in her eye, regaining her typical self-confident attitude quickly.

"They've been dating for less than twenty four hours…why are you acting like this is a lifelong commitment?" Sam said, rolling his eyes.

John, Dean, and Alex all glared at him evilly, all three of them threatening to shove his cereal down his throat in the most painful way possible; making him pause with his spoon halfway to his face, his mouth open, as he watched them all carefully to make sure they weren't going to lunge across the table at him. "Sorry…"

Alex couldn't help but giggle at the terrified look on Sam's face, "It's alright, we're not going to shoot you…relax."

John leaned back in his chair and studied Dean and Alex carefully. _I've got to admit, I'm kind of happy this is one battle I lost. No one besides Sam and Dean has had the nerve to stand up to me like she did. I like her, let's just hope this doesn't end in heartache…_

"Alright." John said, watching all three of the kids exchange grins, "So, is Dean staying here? Or is Alex coming with?"

Alex wanted to hug the man, he seemed like he could be a real pain in the ass, but at least he was fair when it came down to it. She smiled at John and said, "I didn't want to stay in Champaign anyway."


	3. Chapter 3

"I still don't understand why we can't use _my _car." Alex said moodily from the backseat of Dean's Impala, she was feeling some separation anxiety at leaving her car at the Winchester family friend, Bobby's, house.

"Relax, your car's going to be fine." Dean said for the umpteenth time, knowing she was more worried for the safety of her car then she was upset about not having it. Hell, he'd be depressed too if he was forced to leave the Impala behind.

"Yea, yea…" She muttered, looking out the window.

Sam was listening to a voicemail from Dad, who'd taken off a few days after the four of them left Alex's apartment in Champaign, Illinois, apparently because he'd gotten a call from an old friend, one who's name he refused to reveal, and didn't want three kids slowing him down.

"Dad said he'll be a few more days, and he'll call when he's on his way back." Sam said dully, _Dad drives me crazy, I hate how he always treats us like we're a bunch of typical immature kids. _

"That's all he said?" Alex inquired quizzically. _John really underestimates Sam and Dean…and with the guys' stubborn streaks, he's going to cause a hell of a fight one of these days._

"That's all Dad _ever_ says." Sam replied irritably from the front seat.

She took that as a sign to end that conversation, and decided to change the subject. "So what about us? Where're we headed?"

"Well, Dad left us a list of possible jobs. One of 'em isn't far from here." Dean answered as they passed a road sign that said,_ Welcome to Ohio! _He motioned for the newspaper article Sam was reading and passed it back to Alex for her to look over.

"_Junior Murdered at Homecoming Dance._" Alex read out loud, "Seventeen year old Jennifer Stephens of Cleveland, Ohio was found dead Monday, March seventh, in the high school girls' locker room by Officers Bradley Loft and…Blah, blah, blah…" Alex skipped over the part about what policemen were involved and how special they thought they were, and passed right down to the murder details. "Authorities believed she was killed by some kind of," Alex paused and squinted at the paper, the next word making her think she must be reading the wrong line, "_animal…_" She laid the paper in her lap, "Animal? What kind of animal would be in a high school locker room?"

"Exactly." Sam said, twisting in his seat to look at Alex, "That's what we have to figure out."

Alex already had an evil little smirk on her face as she flipped through her day planner to the calendar inside, once she got to it she glanced at Sam with an extremely smug glint in her eyes. "Take a look at this." She held the calendar out to him, her finger on March seventh, the day Jennifer Stephens was murdered.

Sam looked at the date, "So what?"

"Come on, Sam. You're a smart kid." Alex's eyes were shining, she was really enjoying the fact that she knew something that the whiz kid didn't.

He took another look at the calendar, recognition finally gleaming on his face, "Full moon?" He glanced up at Alex to see if that was what she was getting at and she nodded at him, "You don't think this is a werewolf, do you?"

"Werewolf?" Dean said incredulously from the front seat, "Come on, those things are normally found in remote areas, like parts of Montana and Colorado. But Cleveland? Tell me you're kidding."

Alex frowned at him in the rearview mirror, "It's entirely possible. I mean, they're humans most of the time, so they'll blend in in a highly populated area."

"Yea, but most werewolves _choose_ to live in remote areas so that they're less likely to hurt someone during their transformation." Sam told her.

"So, what? You really think that there _aren't_ werewolves out there who are as mentally twisted in their human form as they are in their werewolf form?"

Dean and Sam glanced at each other doubtfully, then Dean shook his head, "It's a long shot."

"But a shot, nonetheless."

Sam and Dean both nodded their approval, a little reluctantly, and Alex whipped out Sam's laptop to do some research.

A while later Dean parked the Impala in front of the Hampton Inn, about ten miles from the Cleveland Lighthouse East High School. Once they'd checked in, they grabbed their stuff from the car and settled into their room.

"Find anything interesting?" Dean asked Alex as she sat down on the bed.

"Actually, yea." She pulled the laptop out again and opened up a web site, reading aloud the important parts. "As far as becoming a werewolf goes, becoming a werewolf simply by being bitten by another werewolf as a form of contagion is common in modern fiction, but rare in legend, in which werewolf attacks seldom left the victim alive. But if it were to happen, the saliva _has_ to enter the bloodstream, and since the victim would have been bitten during the full moon, they'll know immediately if they've been infected. There are other ways of becoming one, such as drinking the water out of a werewolf footprint, or German lore says that the seventh son of the seventh son will become a werewolf. As for a silver bullet to the heart, it'll work, but it has to be a direct shot to the heart. Throwing silver at or over a werewolf is supposed to bring out its true form, so if we were to shoot the thing and miss its heart, it'd just _really _piss it off. There are other methods of removal, such as being saluted with the cross, to be addressed three times with a baptismal name, to be hit three times in the forehead with a knife, or to have at least three drops of blood drawn, but they're only possible cures, not to mention they all sound a bit ridiculous to me. The only sure way to kill it is by piercing its heart with pure silver."

Once she was done rattling off details, she glanced up at Sam and Dean, who were busy going over everything in their heads.

"So tomorrow we can find the girl's friends and family, talk to them and see if there was anything weird going on before she died…"

"Right." Sam and Alex said in unison.

XXX

Sam had gotten in the shower a few minutes ago and Alex and Dean realized they had a chance to be alone for a little while.

Dean lay propped up against the headboard of one of the queen sized beds with Alex's head resting on his chest, she was running her finger over the 'v' of skin that showed at the top of his shirt while he had his eyes closed just enjoying being close to her.

"This sucks." Dean said suddenly.

"What does?"

"We're going to have either Sam or Dad with us all the time."

"So what's wrong with that? I love Sam, and your Dad…well, he and I will warm up to each other eventually."

"Hopefully." Dean smiled at her, then frowned again, "But I want to spend some time alone with you."

"What does it look like we're doing?"

"I mean, well, you know what I mean!"

Alex grinned, then sighed, "Yea, I know what you mean. But relax, we've got plenty of time to have fun, right now we've got a job to do."

Dean sat up, making Alex take her head away and lay down on the pillow. He leaned over her, smiling at her, "So how bad do you think Sam will freak if he walks out and finds us like this?"

She contorted her face into mock concentration, "Hmm…I don't know, we could always prop a chair against the bathroom door in order to protect his sensitive eyes." She told him with false sincerity.

"Sounds good to me…" He leaned down and kissed her lightly, then rolled onto his back, holding Alex's arms so she was forced to go with it and ended up sitting on top of him straddling his hips. She sat up straight, gazing down at him with hunger in her eyes, her hands sneaking downward.

Wouldn't it be fun if she'd just rip off his pants right now?

And Alex was gearing up to do just that when she heard the shower turn off, she glanced at the bathroom and then back at Dean, who could hear Sam ripping open the shower curtain.

"So much for fun." Dean said miserably.

He sat up, with Alex still on him, and she wrapped her legs around his back and her arms around his neck, "We've got a few seconds yet…" She whispered. She leaned in, Dean's hands on the small of her back as he pulled her hips closer to his body. Alex let him part her lips with his and felt herself positively melt into that kiss. Dean slipped his hands under her shirt and upward, pulling his mouth away from hers and kissing her neck and shoulders. She breathed lightly on his ear as his hands wandered to the inside of her thigh, biting her lip to keep back a moan of longing.

For goodness sake, Sam, stay in the damn bathroom…

Dean could feel well-defined muscles on the inside of Alex's legs as she tensed and gently thrust her hips against him, he felt like the moment when they could let themselves loose control wouldn't come soon enough. He heard the door to the bathroom click as Sam turned the knob and brought his face away from Alex's neck to look in her eyes. For one second they just watched each other with passion sending sparks throughout their bodies, and then the bathroom door opened and Alex swiftly rolled to the side, grabbed a magazine off the side table, and sat up against the headboard while Dean snatched the laptop off of the foot of the bed and flipped it open.

All that in a matter of seconds…damn, they're good!

Sam flopped down onto the second bed without even glancing at them, and Alex and Dean let out a small sigh of relief.

XXX

It was around six in the morning when Sam woke up. After he'd gotten dressed and ready for the day, and Alex and Dean were still asleep, he chucked one of his pillows at Dean's head, hitting him square in the face.

Dean just rolled over, facing Alex, and covered his head up with the blankets. The movement was enough to wake her up though, and she moaned, stretching, and opened her eyes.

"Wha' time is it?" She asked tiredly, tossing the blankets off of both her and Dean.

"Six thirty." Sam said, chuckling to himself at Dean's reluctance to get out of bed. His brother still had his eyes closed and was groping for the comforter to cover back up.

Alex yawned and stood up, "Dean, get up."

"Why?" Dean had given up looking for the blanket and was face down in a pillow.

"Because we have to go to school."

Dean lifted his head up and blinked at her, "Excuse me?"

Alex rolled her eyes at him and grabbed her bag of clothes, "I'm going to go shower while your brain catches up."

"Then you'd better take a long shower…" Sam told her seriously, dodging the pillow that Dean threw back at him.

XXX

"Cleveland Lighthouse East High School…Dude, check out the ass on _that_ chick!" Dean said, glancing over at Alex in the passenger seat to see what she'd do, but she just shook her head and sighed. "Well, you're tons of fun."

Alex got out of the car and slammed the door, walking up the sidewalk to the main entrance, with Dean and Sam close behind.

The three of them walked into the principal's office, Principal James Tillman sitting in his comfy-looking leather chair waiting for them. Alex had made a call the night before to let him know that he'd be getting three new temporary students. She'd lied and told him that she and her two brothers had lost their parents recently and decided to move in with some relatives near Cleveland until they could find a place of their own.

And he bought that?

Principal Tillman looked up from his paperwork, he seemed a bit irritated after having to look over the transcripts and fill out the various forms needed to transfer the three new students at such short notice.

Dean had stayed up late too, making up fake IDs for the three of them, (all of them kept the same first name, but their last name was now Wakeman) fake transcripts, fake records and the like. Sam was easy, since he was technically still in school back in Kansas, so Dean was able to get a hold of his paperwork and make copies of it, changing things when necessary. But he'd had a harder time with himself and Alex, since he'd graduated a year ago and couldn't get his high school paperwork anymore and Alex had had enough credits to graduate early after her parents' death. But in the end he'd managed to make up some pretty convincing stuff.

"Alright, you're all ready. Here are you're schedules." Mr. Tillman handed them each a schedule and a student handbook, their names sketched on the top. He motioned to someone outside the door to come in, and two students walked in, "Alex, Dean, this is Ethan Hudgins. Sam, this is Rachel Witnem. They'll be giving you a tour this morning before your first classes."

Alex blew a piece of hair out of her face in boredom, gazing at their tour guides. Sam's new companion was a short little blonde Sophomore with thick glasses, she looked like a typical know-it-all Science whiz who'd rather be taking a Math test than showing around new kids. The guy, Ethan, was an inch or two taller than Dean and built the same way, he had dark brown hair that was bleached at the tips and styled to perfection, and his green eyes twinkled in Alex's direction.

"Try not to get in trouble your first day, eh?" Mr. Tillman said as they stood up and faced Rachel and Ethan.

Dean grinned wickedly, "We'll try."

They walked out of the office and Sam and Rachel turned to the left, while Ethan veered to the right.

"You guys are lucky, we're getting ready for the Senior Prom, next week, so classes are real easy right now, most of the time Seniors get let out of class for class meetings and to decorate the gym." Ethan said pleasantly as he offered Alex an arm, which she took, glancing back at Dean with an evil grin on her face, _This is what you get for checking out other girl's asses and rubbing it in my face._ She wanted to say to him.

"April fifth, huh?" Dean asked, making a mental note to check the next calendar he saw.

"Yea, wait until you see the gym, we've gotten most of the decorations up already."

Alex nodded, asking with mock shyness as she held onto Ethan's well-toned upper arm, "So, Ethan, do you play any sports?"

Ethan smiled at her, not even bothering to hide his gloating, "I'm captain of the varsity football team, and the basketball team. I played baseball last year, too."

Alex rolled her eyes, but hid it from Ethan, "Wow." She said, her voice thick with false emotion, but Ethan didn't seem to notice because he started rambling about all the accomplishments he'd made, like taking his team to the state championships in football last year…and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah…After the first few minutes Alex stopped even pretending to care and just looked around the different rooms they explored.

Finally, Ethan shut up and looked back at Dean, "How about you?"

Dean shrugged, smiling briefly, "Nah, I never really had time to do any extracurricular stuff." _I was too busy keeping morons like you from getting your heads ripped off by supernatural sons of bitches…_

Ethan looked down at Alex, "I was captain of the varsity volleyball team back at my old school, and I played basketball too." She said casually as Dean scowled at the back of Ethan's head as he and Alex talked about the things they had in common, and when he and Ethan left Alex in her first class, Physics, he and Ethan had their first class together and they walked down the hallway in an uncomfortable silence. Ethan was just thinking Dean was an overprotective brother, little did he know Dean was plotting to hit him in the back of the head with a tennis racket in P.E…

Sam mingled with the Sophomores, making a few friends easily with his laid-back and friendly attitude. He was trying to find any leads on their case, but none of the Sophomores really knew Jennifer Stephens, so he waited until lunch to catch up with Alex and Dean and see if they found anything.

Alex was back in her element, she had already gotten herself into the middle of the giggling group of "popular" girls that she was used to and found that Jennifer and Ethan had been dating when Jennifer was killed, but she also found out that Ethan hadn't been at Homecoming because he had supposedly stayed home with the flu that week. Alex found that a bit too convenient, and would definitely tell Sam and Dean to keep an eye on Ethan.

Jennifer had been found by a Freshman girl, Savannah Rider, who claimed to have left her purse in her gym locker. There was no evidence pointing to Savannah, but there wasn't much pointing away from her either. Alex found out that Savannah was in numerous clubs, such as the Mathematics Club of Cleveland, and was an all around good kid who got straight A's and Honor Roll status year after year. Apparently, Savannah was dating a Junior, Brian Jacobs, who was also an almost to-good-to-be-true student. Not really the kind of people you'd suspect of murdering someone.

She checked into various other possible suspects, casually, of course, so no one ever caught on that Alex was investigating the murder.

Or so she thought.

None of the other students seemed as if they could be likely culprits, they were either way to popular and had dung for brains, or they were total "geeks" like Rachel Witnem, Sam's hostess, and were to busy trying their hardest to cram for a Spanish exam that was six weeks away. Alex had buddied up to some of the teachers too, asking casual questions about "that one girl who, like, got killed, like, last month by some kind of, like, animal" but not discovering much of anything that she and the guys hadn't already known.

Dean managed to get himself on a couple of guys' bad sides when they thought he was hitting on their girlfriends, and was too busy trying to avoid empty hallways all day to really do any digging.

"How's your first day going?" Alex asked Sam and Dean pleasantly when she was finally able to loose her overly-enthusiastic and falsely-loyal groupies by hanging back in the bathroom while they all headed off to the lunchroom and Alex detoured to the Impala parked in the school parking lot.

"Peachy, just peachy." Dean said moodily.

"Good!" Sam said, sitting on the trunk of the car. "Have either of you found anything?"

"I did!" Alex said enthusiastically, sharing the little tidbits of information that she'd learned about the relationship between Ethan and Jennifer, the girl who found her, and Jennifer's friends. "There's not a lot to go on, but I think we should start with Ethan, he seems to be the most likely suspect right now."

"I knew there was something I didn't like about him." Dean said irritably.

"You just don't like him because he was hitting on me." Alex retaliated and Dean scowled at her.

Sam jumped in, changing the subject, "Alright, so let's find out everything there is to know about this Ethan kid, and later tonight we can go talk to Jennifer's family. But right now I think we should go take a look at the murder scene."

Alex and Dean nodded, following Sam back into the high school.

There wasn't a whole lot to find, everything had been cleaned up, and the lockers had been repainted to cover up bloodstains and scratch marks. But Sam found a few long, deep gouges in the tiled floors and walls near the showers that could only have been caused by something really big, really mean, and really hungry…

Dean also found a few remnants of course brown and gray hairs stuck in the hinges of one of the locker doors, and Sam found some more that were caught in the wood bench just inside the locker room door.

Alex scoured the place high and low, finding small amounts of blood samples that the janitors had missed. She was an expert in Chemistry and biology, and planned on taking what samples she could find up to the lab to check them out. "Jesus…" Alex muttered to herself after scraping blood from places all over the room, rather than just one area.

"What?" Sam and Dean said together, coming over to stand next to her.

Alex finished placing the dried blood samples in a plastic bag, she had access to the Chemistry lab and planned on using it later. "Either Jennifer put up one hell of a fight, or this evil bastard is a really messy eater…" She tucked the plastic bags into her jeans pocket, and Dean handed her the hair samples, "I'm going to go to the Science room and take a look at these. You two had better get back to class!" She smirked wickedly at Dean, and he and Sam just grinned at her, shaking their heads.

XXX

The night of the full moon rolled around, and Dean, Sam and Alex were all on edge. It had taken a few days before the three of them could do anymore digging after investigating the locker room, they were already drawing too much attention to themselves by asking questions about Jennifer Stephens, so it was one day before Prom when Dean and Sam went to talk to the Stephens family while Alex stayed late after school to use the Chemistry microscopes on the blood and hair samples. Principal Tillman already adored her, and had left her a key to lock the front doors when she was done.

Alex was carefully placing the different blood samples and hair samples on glass slides, after looking at several of them she was surprised to find more than one type of blood, and the hair samples were also different. In the end, she stared at three groups of samples. The first was a slide with Jennifer's blood, the second had three slides, two of which were blood, and the other fur, from one werewolf. And the third group was what had Alex so surprised, there was a _third _blood sample, from _another_ werewolf, and the hairs that Sam found didn't match the hair that Dean discovered.

The werewolf blood was infused with oddly distorted blood cells, and the white blood cells were extremely limited. Alex sat back in her chair and stared at the slides for a few seconds, then she pulled her cell phone out of her back pocket and flipped it open, dialing Dean's cell number.

"Hey." Dean's voice came from the other end, he and Sam were just getting back in the Impala after talking to the Stephens. "Jennifer's family's a mess, I don't think they were involved in any way. What'd you find?"

"There are two of them."

"What? Two of what?" Dean asked, his eyebrows snapping together and Sam sitting straight in the seat watching Dean intently.

"Two werewolves. The hair that you and Sam found have a different genetic makeup, along with the blood samples. I found Jennifer's blood, but the other two are different from a humans, similar, but not quite the same, and they're also different from each other." Alex paused, then repeated herself because she was having a hard time believing it, "Dean, there are two of these damn things! They must fight each other too, when they transform, because I doubt Jennifer could have inflicted enough damage on the two of the bastards to draw blood from them."

Dean exhaled sharply, "Damn…" He shook his head, "Alright, we'll be there in a few minutes to pick you up. Meet us outside."

"Ok." Alex flipped her phone closed and gathered up all of the slides, slipping them into her bag. She turned around and almost dropped everything when she saw Ethan standing in front of her.

"Ethan!" Her body went rigid, cursing herself for not bringing her .44 with her. _What the hell is he doing here! There aren't even any damn teachers around! Hurry up, Dean…_ She recovered quickly and smiled at him calmly, "Hey! What are you doing here?"

"I had a test to make up in Calculus. I was just leaving when I saw the light on." He grinned at her, "What are _you_ doing here?"

_Math test? You're a really shitty liar…_Alex thought quickly, "Chem project…It's for a scholarship, I just wanted to get a head start on it."

Ethan nodded, still grinning, "Um…I'm glad I caught you alone, actually."

Alex's body tensed even further when Ethan took a few steps toward her. Tomorrow was the night of the Prom, and the full moon, but just because he wasn't going to go nuclear hairball on her didn't mean she could trust him.

"I wanted to ask you, uh…if you'd found a date for Prom yet." Ethan finished shyly, unlike his normal cocky and confident self.

Alex sighed a breath of relief and smiled at him, "No, I hadn't. I forgot all about Prom actually…"

"Would you like to go with me?"

She grinned at him, wondering what Dean was going to say when she told him about this, "I'd love to, Ethan." She glanced at the door, "I've got to go, my brothers are going to be here any second to pick me up."

"I'll walk you out." Ethan said with a smile, taking her bag from her and walking her outside.

Dean scowled when he and Sam pulled into the school parking lot and saw Ethan with a hand on the small of Alex's back, handing her her bag back. He pulled up next to the two of them and put the car in park, "Hey, Ethan." He said tensely, shooting Alex a nasty look.

"Hey, Dean." Ethan said, not noticing the livid look on Dean's face as he opened the back door for Alex.

Alex waved goodbye to Ethan as Dean floored it out of the parking lot, "What the hell was he doing with you?"

"I'm not sure why he was there…He said he had a test to make up, that was an obvious lie though." Alex was anxious to know the real reason for Ethan's presence at school so late at night, when she was the only other person there, but she pushed the thought out of her mind, smirking wickedly at Dean in the rearview mirror, "He asked me if I'd like to go to Prom with him."

Dean almost choked, "What?! And what did you say?"

"I said yes."

"Why the hell would you say yes to a goddam werewolf?"

"We don't know that he's the werewolf, and I said yes because you two are going tomorrow night too so it's not like I'm going to be alone with him. Would you rather I said no and pissed him off? That would have just given him more of a reason to rip me to shreds." She paused and added, "_If _he's the wolf."

"Are you forgetting one little detail?" Dean asked, a deep growl giving his voice an extra sharp edge.

"Like what?"

"Like the fact that you and I are _dating?_"

"_You're_ supposed to be my brother, remember? And, besides, who would you rather went with the possible hairball? Me, the girl who knows what she may be up against and can stand a fight, or a girl who has no clue and couldn't defend herself even if her life depended on it?"

Dean's eyes shot back to the road, and he didn't say anything to either of them.

Alex had Dean drive downtown so she could rent he and Sam tuxes and find herself a dress for tomorrow night. Dean didn't stop complaining about having to wear the monkey suit until Alex came out of the dressing rooms and modeled a dark blue, low-cut, floor-length, satin dress with silver embroidery around the edges for he and Sam.

"What do you think?" Alex asked, studying herself critically in the full-body mirror while even Sam had a hard time keeping his jaw from dropping to the floor.

"Uh, you, um…" Dean cleared his throat, "You look great." He said, staring at her.

Alex just sighed thoughtfully, inspecting herself from all angles before turning to face Dean and Sam. "Are you sure?"

Dean got over his shock and snorted at the sincerity in her voice, "It's not even _your_ prom night, Alex."

She scowled at him, "Shut up." She blushed at her lack of a good comeback and faced the mirror again.

Sam elbowed Dean in the ribs, "You're such an ass…" He raised his voice so Alex could hear him, "Relax, you look really great, honestly." He told her with a smile when Alex grinned at him.

"Not that it matters, it'll probably get ripped to shreds by werewolves in the next twenty four hours…"

XXX

Ethan picked Alex up at eight the following night, and Dean and Sam followed them closely to the school.

Sam, Alex, and Dean each had a .44 hidden somewhere in their formal wear. Sam and Dean's were tucked in the back of their pants, their shirts covering them, and Alex had hers strapped into a holder, placed safely on the inside of her thigh.

"So what's the plan?" She asked Sam and Dean when she managed to get away from Ethan for a few seconds.

"We mingle." Sam said, "And if anyone leaves, alone, then we follow them. If you find one of the wolves, then come find us."

Alex nodded and rolled her eyes when she saw Ethan headed her way, "Be careful!" She whispered quickly, catching Dean's eye and giving him a small smile before she followed Ethan onto the dance floor.

Dean sulked around the edge of the gym room, his eyes dancing around the room as he tried to watch everyone at once, but he kept focusing on Alex and Ethan. He didn't even give Ethan a second glance when he saw him leave the room through the small doors at the back of the gym, toward the boys showers and bathroom.

"I've got to go to the bathroom!" Ethan shouted over the music, "I'll be right back!"

Alex nodded to let him know that she had heard him, rather than try to be heard over the deafening noise around them.

She sat down at the edge of the gym room and smiled when she saw Sam dancing with a cute little blonde, while she noticed another girl glaring at the blonde enviously. _At least he's having fun, the poor kid gets tossed around all the time between hunts…the kids back in his school in Kansas hardly even know him._

Dean had noticed a young freshman couple leave, headed toward the parking lot, and even though they didn't look suspicious, he decided to tail them for a few minutes just in case.

Alex glanced around the large gymnasium for Ethan, he'd been gone for almost fifteen minutes…She stood up and walked out to the boy's bathroom, knocking gently on the door before opening it, "Ethan?" She quickly scanned the restroom, not seeing anyone, and walked back into the hallway. She also checked the boys and girls locker rooms, but didn't find anyone, so she decided Ethan must have gone back to the gym by now and was just about to walk back into the Prom when she noticed a red smear on the wall at the far end of the hallway, leading away from the gym and down a lesser used hallway that lead to the weight room and boiler room.

She frowned and lifted her dress, taking the .44 out of its strap and holding it in front of her as she slowly walked down the hallway toward the wall. She touched one finger to the stain and wiped away fresh blood, then noticed a few large scratches in the floor just beneath. Not wanting to double back and find Dean and Sam when someone could be in trouble, she rounded the corner of the hallway, seeing more stains along the tiled floor where someone had apparently been dragged. Her muscled were all tensed and ready for anything as her eyes followed the red marks to the door of the weight room.

Sam was having fun back at the dance, but he was also doing his job, he had seen Alex leave and immediately went to find Dean. He ran into his brother at the main entrance of the gymnasium, "Alex left." He said simply, but a little nervously.

"Where?" Dean asked, his stomach twisting slightly, hoping she hadn't gone and tried to find Ethan. _Dammit! Ethan's probably one of the damn wolves and she goes off to find him! If she gets herself killed…I'll kill her._

"Out the back doors, toward the guys bathroom." Sam replied, the two of them already walking quickly in that direction.

Alex's nerves were definitely getting a workout, she pushed the weight room door open and flicked the light switch up. She saw Ethan laying in the middle of the floor, unconscious, and ran over to him, kneeling next to him and checking his pulse. It was strong, and he was breathing fine, but the blood she'd seen on the floor and walls was from a large gash on his forehead. _Oh, God…It's not him! _She patted his chest sympathetically, _Please don't turn into a giant furball while I've got my back turned, two of the creepy bastards is enough._ She straightened and scanned the room, her entire body freezing in place when she saw Rachel Witnem, Sam's Sophomore tour guide, standing next to a treadmill. Rachel looked completely normal, except for one thing, her eyes were a bright, burnt orange and her pupils were dilated to twice the size of a normal human being's.

"Rachel?!" Alex said incredulously, forgetting to raise her gun.

Rachel smirked, taking a few steps toward Alex, "Amazing, I know. Who would suspect dear, little, ol' me? There's an upside to being a teacher's pet, no one ever even _thinks_ about pointing the finger at you when something goes wrong."

Alex regained her footing in the blink of an eye, she pointed her .44 straight at Rachel's chest, her finger on the trigger, "Yea, who would have thought the geek was a freak too?" She said with a growl.

Rachel stopped walking and snarled at Alex, showing pointed fangs, "I don't think you're in any position to be insulting a werewolf right now, Alex."

"And I don't think you're in any position to be insulting the girl with a clip full of silver bullets, Rachel." Alex replied icily. "So why'd you kill Jennifer? Why Ethan?"

"Jennifer was a bitch, and I was getting hungry." Rachel told her, grinning, "As for Ethan, I knocked him out and dragged him here just to get you to come looking for him. You and your brothers have been sticking your noses where they don't belong, if I hadn't been careful you would have found me out already."

Alex cursed, wishing she hadn't been stupid enough to fall for this bitch's poorly set trap, "Who's the other werewolf?" She asked, circling away from Rachel as she continued to come closer, small brown hairs starting to appear on her hands, arms, face and chest.

Rachel stopped walking toward her again, "What?"

Alex smiled, "That's right, I know there are two of you ugly bastards. We found the different blood and hair samples." She heard a scuffle behind her, "Sorry to ruin it for you, I'm sure you were looking forward to watching your partner attack me from behind while I was too busy focusing on you." She quickly whipped around and aimed at the chest of Brian Jacobs, Savannah Rider's boyfriend, the girl who'd found Jennifer dead, and shot.

Brian was partly transformed, his face had started to shift into a long, doglike face and his elbow and knees joints were opposite from a human's. Brian screamed, clawing at his chest with long yellowed finger nails and fell to the floor, before he died his body was transformed back to its normal human form. He hardly even knew what hit him.

Alex tried to turn again, but felt something rip the shoulder strap on her dress and decided to dart forward instead. She heard a yelp and stopped, turning around to see Rachel's once normal face and body turned completely, bristly tail and all. She was down on all fours, her hands now large paws with deadly-looking claws, her face was elongated and saliva dripped from pure white fangs which were bared as she snarled at someone standing in the doorway. Alex looked over and saw Sam and Dean there, both of them had guns pointed at the werewolf.

Sam had been the one to shoot, but apparently he'd missed. He swore and aimed again, waiting for Alex to move before he shot. Dean darted off around the werewolf toward Alex, and the wolf lunged for him, knocking him to the ground with its superior weight.

Sam and Alex both leaped in, Sam pulling out a silver bladed knife and plunging it into the beast's shoulder, making it growl again in pain and taking its focus off of Dean. Alex wasted no time, when she saw the thing jump back off of Dean, biting at the knife embedded in its shoulder; she took aim and fired, hitting the wolf straight in the heart. It to screamed in agony and collapsed on the floor, Rachel once again.

Dean lay panting on the floor, adrenaline rushing through his veins even though the whole fight had taken less than a minute. Alex and Sam each took a hand and pulled him to his feet, worry written on their faces.

"Did it bite you?" They asked him in unison, inspecting him closely.

"No." He said shortly, all three of them breathing heavily.

They just stood and stared at the two bodies before them, until finally Sam came back to reality and said, "We need to get Ethan out of here…" Alex and Dean nodded, one of Dean's hands was wrapped around Alex's waist and she had a finger in his belt loop, glad that he was okay.

Dean and Sam supported Ethan back down the hallway, where two teachers were busy chatting with each other. When they saw the "Wakemans" and Ethan's limp form Sam and Dean stopped and dropped Ethan gently to the floor, propping him up against the wall.

The next few hours flew by in a blur of police, detectives, yellow police tape, and EMTs. Alex, Sam, and Dean fed them a bullshit story about how Brian and Rachel had been working together, and they were the ones who murdered Jennifer Stephens. Their story was helped along by the fact that Ethan remembered being ambushed by Rachel and Brian, but didn't remember a thing about the fight that had taken place in the weight room a few hours earlier.

After they'd been questioned, and the police accepted the phony story, Alex, Sam, and Dean were free to go.

"I'd rather go up against spirits…" Alex said matter-of-factly as she, Dean, and Sam pulled out of the motel parking lot, everyone in Cleveland Lighthouse East believing the three "Wakemans" had found a house in Michigan.

Dean sighed, agreeing, "I know what you mean. Those kids were messed up, but they still had families."

"And we just destroyed their families lives…I mean, how do you think they'll handle the thought that their children were murders? And people are always going to treat them like criminals…It's just terrible." Alex mumbled, looking out the window.

Sam agreed with them too, but he decided not to make the mood any more depressing, "At least we know that the other students are safe now." He said lightly, trying to improve their spirits.

Alex sighed, and smiled, "Yea, another job well done, I guess."

Dean looked over at her, and she could feel his eyes on her. She scooted over and tucked herself up next to him on the front seat, he threw an arm around her shoulders in a small hug, then turned his eyes back to the road. Sam bunched up his jacket and used it as a pillow, all three of them were tired after the shittiest Prom night ever, and just wanted to reach the next motel room as fast as possible.


	4. Chapter 4: Part 1

Author's Note: A little "in between chapters" fun! I'll be basing the next chapter off of this, but I haven't gotten everything worked out, so this is just a preview!!!

XXX

Alex was driving the Impala, passing another car when a sudden thought hit her and she glanced at Sam in the passenger seat out of the corner of her eye, then checked to make sure Dean was still asleep in the backseat.

"Hey, Sam?" She asked, a note of curiosity sneaking into her voice.

"Yea." He replied, not looking up from his game of Snake on his cell phone.

"You have your temps don't you?"

"Yea." He replied again, still not looking up.

Alex smirked slyly and slowed to the side of the road, "Has Dean ever let you drive this?" She asked, meaning the Impala.

That caught Sam's attention, he stared at her as if she'd sprouted an additional head. "What are you kidding? He'd kill me! I'm surprised he even lets you drive it."

She rolled her eyes, "Well, come on then!" Alex swiftly opened the door and got out.

Sam stayed where he was and watched her walk around the front of the car, still staring at her incredulously. She got in on his side of the car and shoved him over to the driver's side excitedly.

Alex giggled at the look on Sam's face, he looked as if he'd just taken a drink of that bitter apple stuff that people spray on their furniture to keep their pets from chewing on it. "Let's see, first you put it in drive..." She said, teasing him.

Sam frowned at her, "I know!"

"Then why aren't we moving yet?!"

He shakily shifted into drive, pulling off the side of the road and picking up speed, every two seconds he would glance in the rearview mirror to make sure his brother wasn't holding a gun to his head.

Alex was a bit nervous at what Dean might say too, not to Sam, but to her. She felt pretty cheeky giving Sam permission to drive a car that wasn't even hers, and much more cheeky considering it was Dean's...

Well, at least now she'll know who Dean's more loyal too, her or his car!

She and Sam were both a tad jumpy whenever Dean moved in his sleep, but after a few minutes they both calmed down and Sam let some of the tension out of his muscles.

"I hope he doesn't murder us once he wakes up..." Sam muttered, glancing in the rearview mirror at Dean for the millionth time.

"Relax and enjoy it! If he wakes up with his undies in a bunch I can untwist them." Alex told him reassuringly. _I hope..._ She thought to herself.

Sam smiled to himself, thinking about how having a "big sister" was going to make things a _lot_ more interesting.

Alex put her hands behind her head and leaned back on the seat, sighing deeply when she felt her cell phone vibrate in her pocket. She flipped it open without looking at the caller ID, "Hello?"

"Alex."

Alex about dropped the phone when she heard John's voice on the other end, _Why the hell is he calling_ me_ and not Dean or Sam?!_

"John!" She choked out, things still weren't going the greatest between she and John. Ever since she'd joined the boys John seemed to have grown more distant with his sons, and that in turn made Alex want to rip his head off for ignoring Sam and Dean just because he didn't want to see or talk to _her_.

Sam almost slammed on the brakes, and Dean's eyes snapped open at the John's name. Dean first looked at Alex, but his eyes widened as he realized who was driving.

Great job, Dean! Nothing like making a tense moment even more intense...

Alex's eyes darted back to Dean, but she was too surprised by John's phone call to try and defend Sam.

"Are you alone?" John asked, his voice gruff and tired.

"Sam and Dean are here." Alex said back, _What's going on! Why would he ask if I was alone?_

"Give me a call when you are, okay?"

"Wait, what?"

"Tell the boys I just wanted to check up on you guys, and that I'll call them later tonight."

Alex was going to argue, but she decided she'd better not _try_ and get on his bad side any more than she already seemed to be. "Alright, we'll talk to you tonight then." She said so Sam and Dean wouldn't get suspicious.

As if they weren't already.

Alex flipped her phone closed and immediately Dean jumped in, looking livid, " I have two _very_ important questions for you Alex…Number one, why the hell is Sam driving my car! And number two, why was Dad calling you and not one of us?"

"And I have two completely valid answers. Sam is driving your car because I thought it was a nice idea, considering his own brother won't let him." She scowled at Dean and he backed down slightly, but was still looking determinedly curious about the second question. Alex did some quick thinking for the next answer, then noticed that Sam's phone was still on the dash in front of the passenger seat, and Dean probably had his on vibrate so he could sleep and wouldn't have even noticed if it rang, so she took a long shot, "He called me because neither of you answered your phones. You two dipshits have probably got them on silent or vibrate, right?" She crossed her fingers and hoped they were.

Dean and Sam looked satisfied, and Alex breathed a small sigh of relief.

"What did he say?" Sam asked, glancing at her briefly and then pinning his eyes back to the road when Dean shot him a venomous glare for taking his attention off of the road.

"He just wanted to check up on us, but his cell phone was cutting out, and he didn't sound too happy to be talking to me, so he said he'd call you later tonight."

Again, Sam and Dean looked satisfied and Dean turned his full attention to Sam, but this time he wasn't quiet so angry. "Having fun?" He asked, his eyebrows raised and a slightly nasty look on his face. Sam almost appeared as if he wanted to melt into the seat in order to get himself out of that situation, and it made Dean feel a bit guilty. He ruffled Sam's hair and said gruffly, "Enjoy it while it lasts, next stop and I'm driving."

Alex smiled lovingly at him and gave him a look that said clearly, _That's right, you'd _better_ be nice to him!_ She settled back in the seat and closed her eyes, too busy wondering what the hell was up with John to sleep.

XXX

Dean answered his cell phone around six that evening, an hour or two after they'd stopped for the night and checked into a ragged motel just a few hours from Nashville, Tennessee and he and Sam both talked to John. And afterward Alex stepped outside, telling Sam and Dean she was going to go and get a soda. She called John once she was out of ear shot of the motel room.

"Alex?"

"Yea." Alex didn't even bother saying hello, she dove right to the bottom of the situation, "What the hell is going on, John? Why do you want me? You've made it pretty clear you don't want anything do to with up until now!"

"I need your help."

Alex felt like she'd been slapped in the face, "What?" She stuttered.

"There's this case that I've been working here in Kansas, but I don't want Sam anywhere near here." He said, "Or Dean." He added on quickly.

"What kind of case?" Alex asked, trying to get over her shock, but making a mental note of how John had mentioned Sam's name and added Dean's on so things didn't sound quite so suspicious.

John hesitated, deciding whether or not he should tell her this over the phone, "I think I've got a lead on the thing that killed Mary."

Again, a nice slap in the face for Alex, "What?! Mary, as in your wife, Mary?" She paused, "Why don't you want to tell the guys this?"

"I can't tell you that, but just trust me okay? They could be in danger if they come, you and I have a better chance."

"Good to know that my safety is a top priority for you." Alex said bitterly.

"It's not that, Alex, and you know it!"

"No, I don't know it, John! You've basically _told_ me that you hate that fact that I'm dating your son, and I know it drives you crazy that Sam looks up to me!"

John interrupted her so she couldn't really get herself worked up, "Alex, I _don't_ hate you! I was worried about you, alright! I like you, a lot, Alex, you were a part of the family the moment we saw you."

Okay, enough with the surprises, John! I think Alex might be having a mild heart attack.

For the third time in the last few minutes Alex gasped out, "What?!"

"You heard me." John said, "I was worried about you. Dean loves you, Sam adores you, and whether you believe it or not, I feel like your one of my own kids. I was afraid that if anything happened to you, we'd all fall apart. This family has had enough loss, I guess I had kind of hoped you'd leave so I wouldn't have to watch Sam and Dean go through it all again."

"You want me to leave?" Alex asked, hurt that he'd say that.

"No, well, I did. But not anymore! I'm sorry, alright? I'm sorry I've been an ass to you when you didn't deserve it. You've proved yourself capable, and to ask you to leave now would be more painful than if you were to, well, you know."

"Die. Yea, I get it." Alex said understandably, "You'd hoped I'd leave before anyone got attached. You never should have come to help me, it's like looking at a cute little puppy in the window and naming it, you can never get rid of it!" Alex grinned to herself as John chuckled lightly on the other end.

"So are you going to help me out?" John asked.

Alex bit her lip, "What am I supposed to tell the guys?"

"I don't know, you're a sharp girl, you can come up with something can't you?"

"Yea, I suppose, but I'm only coming on one condition."

"What's that?"

"I get my car back."

John laughed, "Give Bobby a call, he'll be happy to meet you somewhere."

Alex giggled, "I won't be able to get there for a few days, is that okay?"

"Yea, it'll give me more time to strategize anyway."

"Good, I should go, I'm sure they're getting suspicious as to why I've been gone to long."

"Yea, alright. I'll talk to you later then. Thanks, Alex."

Alex smiled, "Yea, well, that's what family is for."

She flipped her phone closed with a happy sigh and jogged back to the motel room.


	5. Chapter 4: Part 2

"Hey!" Alex said as soon as she opened the door to the motel room, and Sam and Dean glanced up at her. "I just talked to one of my cousins." She said, closing the door behind her and trying to think up details to make her lie believable. It felt weird lying to Dean and Sam and she hoped her insecurity didn't show on her face.

"Yea, what'd they want?" Dean asked.

"My Aunt Rachel, one of my Dad's sisters, is in the hospital."

Sam perked up and gave her his signature _I'm here if you need me_ look. "Is she alright."

Seeing Sam worry made Alex feel that much more guilty, but she swallowed the lump in her throat and answered him, "Uh…I'm not really sure. I'm pretty close to my cousins though, and I think I should at least be with them for a while." 

"Alright, we can leave tomorrow." Dean said, standing up and giving her a small sympathy hug.

No way, Dean showing sympathy? Someone better make a note of this and put it down in the history books, because chances are it won't happen again.

"No, you guys stay here. I might be there for a while. What if you find another case?" Alex said, trying not to let her guilt give her away as Sam squinted his eyes at her thoughtfully.

Dean frowned, "Yea, I guess you're right. How are you going to get there though?"

Finally, she didn't have to lie…kind of, "I'm going to rent a car for now, but I'll meet Bobby and get my car back."

Dean nodded, then he sat down on the bed and pulled her down on his lap, smiling at her. But Alex only returned a small smile and he could tell something was off, "What's wrong?" 

Her eyes searched the room quickly and he saw she was trying to find an excuse, "It's just that…well, I want to get there as soon as possible. I think I should leave tonight." She said, not meeting his eyes.

He paused, then replied, "Alright. What hospital is she at?"

"Just the local clinic in Springfield."

"Fine, call me when you get there, okay?" 

Alex wouldn't meet his eyes no matter how hard he tried to catch them, "I will."

She stood up and grabbed her bag, "See you guys." She said to the both of them, then faced Dean and looked him in the eye, "Love you."

He hesitated, wondering whether he should bring up the fact that he knew she was lying, but he let it go. "You too." He stood up and gave her a brief kiss, then she was out the door.

Sam shook his head, "She's a bad liar."

Dean sighed and sat back down on the bead heavily, "I noticed."

"Where do you think she's going?"

"Hell if I know."

Sam paused for a few seconds, "What do you want to do?"

Dean thought about the question, "I don't know. She's got something up her sleeve, she and Dad were both weird tonight…" Dean slowly realized the connection and he and Sam stared at each other.

"You don't think she and _Dad_ are up to something, do you?" Sam asked incredulously.

"It makes sense, but I thought the two of them hated each other. Dad hasn't exactly welcomed her into the family with open arms…"

"But it _does_ make sense." Sam repeated, then leapt out of the chair he'd been sitting in, "So let's follow her."

Dean stayed where he was and watched Sam, slightly amused at his little brother's enthusiasm. _What better way to show that I don't believe her than follow her to wherever she doesn't want me to know she's going. I wish she could trust me._ Dean felt like he'd done something wrong in order to make Alex feel that she couldn't rely on him and tell him the truth. He sighed and shook his head, "Thanks for the effort, Sammy, but I think she can handle herself."

Sam knew Dean was feeling bad, and watched him closely for a few seconds. "Are you sure?"

Dean nodded, then snatched the remote off of the side table and turned on the TV, ending the conversation for the night.

XXX

Alex called Bobby the moment she left the motel room and found out he was taking a trip down to Arizona anyway, so she met him at a small gas station on a gravel road near the border of Arizona and Tennessee.

"Thanks a lot, Bobby." Alex said as he handed her the keys, she was itching to get behind the wheel again.

"Not a problem. You just be careful helpin' John with whatever he's gotten himself tangled up in. He can get pretty absorbed in his work...you'll have to watch out for yourself." Bobby told her, closing the driver's side door for her after she'd sat down.

Alex grinned up at him through the open window, "Thanks for the warning."

Bobby smiled back at her, then stepped away from the car as she turned the key. Alex almost laughed, she was so happy to hear the engine of her Mustang purr.

She waved at Bobby and then turned her attention back to the Mustang. She patted the steering wheel and depressed the clutch, quickly shifting up through the gears as she tore out of the parking lot, spraying gravel behind her.

That was one thing she missed most about her car, the Impala's automatic transmission was nice, but manual was more fun!

Alex was only a few hours from Auburn, the town John had told her to meet him in, and it was a little after ten o'clock at night when she decided to stop at a busy-looking bar before retiring to the backseat of the Mustang for the night. She pulled in to the parking lot, with a few stares and whistles from the men who were just arriving, and stepped out of the car.

She walked into the bar and took a seat at a booth in an unoccupied corner of the large room and sat down, asking the bartender for a beer before she did.

A few men tried their luck with her, thinking that just because she was alone she must be single and easy. _Because that's what all lone women are like…_ Alex thought bitterly to herself; wishing she were back with Sam and Dean. After only two beers, not even enough to give her a good buzz, three guys came over and sat down on either side of her. All of them large, well-muscled, overly-confident, and drunk.

_Here we go…_Alex took another swig of her beer and set it down on the table, smiling with determined sweetness at the three men.

"Hey, cutie." The blonde across from her said, his words slurred. "What'd you say we buy you another couple beers?"

"And I'm sure you can find some way to repay us for it." The smallest guy out of the three had taken a seat on her right and he smirked at her, breathing heavily into Alex's face and making her gag-reflex kick in.

Alex dropped her smile and rolled her eyes, taking another drink and leaning back in her seat comfortably, "Maybe another time guys." She said simply but firmly, only to have the third guy grab her lower thigh and lean in clumsily to nibble on her ear.

_Okay! Gross! Why the hell do guys think shit like this is sexy?!_ Alex rammed her elbow into the guy's rib cage, making him double over in pain while the small man on her right grabbed her arm and wrenched her toward him.

She reacted without even thinking and smashed the base of her left palm upward and into the guy's face, causing an onset of blood from his newly broken nose.

Lucky for her, it only pissed them off. 

Forcing her way out from between the men, Alex clambered over the top of the booth's table. She tried to avoid the blonde guy who'd sat across from her, but he was on his feet and ready for her while the other two caught their breath. He grabbed her around the waist as she attempted to dart off to his side, and she tried jamming her elbow back and into the man's face but missed and hit him low on the shoulder as he pulled her body in close to his. He "hugged" her around the shoulders so her arms were pinned against her sides and her back was pressed against his body, preventing her from being able to twist and defend herself. She pulled her knees up to her chest and shoved hard against the table, causing him to lose his balance and fall over backward. He unwrapped his arms from around her in an effort to catch himself, and Alex landed on her feet while he toppled over backward.

Alex didn't catch a break there though, the small guy leapt toward while the other who'd been sitting right next to her quickly clambered out of the booth and toward her. She waited for the small one first. Alex snatched the guy's wrist and braced her feet, twisting her back to him and bending, pulling him over the top of her and he somersaulted through the air, landing heavily on his back.

Out of breath, but still ready to fight, Alex whipped around expecting to face the third of the horny little bastards, but someone had come to her rescue. 

"John!" Alex gasped out, swiftly darting in to help as the man rammed his shoulders into John's stomach, slamming him backward and onto a table, the table's occupants scrambling to get out of the way.

John had things covered, he smashed his fist into the man's face, forcing the guy to sit up and rush backward to avoid another face-full of John's fist.

Alex reached down and John grabbed a hold of her hand allowing her to pull him to his feet. She smiled briefly at him and panted out, "Thanks!" and then turned her back to him to prevent the blonde guy from bowling the two of them over. She ran at him and at last second dashed to the left, shoving one of her legs into his path and slamming her arms into his back in order to make it harder for him to avoid tripping. The blonde crashed to the floor and groaned, not getting back up. 

John saw the smallest of the three guys run at Alex as she fought off the blonde and swiftly grabbed the man's shoulders and rammed his knee into his stomach. Not the prettiest move, but effective; the man tumbled to the floor in a crumpled heap.

Alex and John both turned in unison to face the third guy, the one that John had punched just seconds before. The guy had both fists up, but with Alex and John braced and ready for him, he thought twice and almost immediately backed down.

Alex relaxed just slightly, and exchanged looks with John. The two of them glanced around, seeing that the entire bar had stopped whatever they'd been doing to watch. Alex grimaced, and John placed a hand on her arm, tugging her lightly toward the exit. They waded through the crowd and forced their way out the door, hearing sirens in the distance, no doubt the bartender had already called the cops.

"You alright?" John asked as the two of them walked quickly to their vehicles. 

Alex grinned, the adrenaline still pumping through her veins, "Are you kidding? I wish there had been more of them!" She said enthusiastically, making John laugh. Alex giggled along with him for a few seconds, "But, seriously, thank you, John." She told him, "I might have gotten into a mess of trouble if you hadn't been there. What are you doing here, anyway? I thought you were over in Auburn, that's still a couple hours from here isn't it?"

John frowned, "Yea, I didn't figure you'd come this far already or else I would have called you to let you know. The demon…"

Alex cut him off, her voice surprised, "Demon?"

He glanced around them, making sure no one was close enough to hear their conversation, "I got us a motel room a few miles from here. I'll tell you once we get there." Alex shrugged and jogged over to her car. She followed John's truck out of the parking lot and to the motel.

XXX

Alex tossed her bag onto one of the two queen sized beds, she could tell John was really on edge because as soon as he closed the door behind them he quickly zipped over to the door and looked out the window, then pulled them shut only to peek through them again.

"Feeling a bit paranoid, John?" Alex asked mischievously while John shot her a nasty look.

"No more than I need to be." He said.

She rolled her eyes, hiding it from John, then told him, "Well, tell me what's going on so I can share in your paranoia."

He took a seat in a chair next to one of the beds, "Alright, two weeks ago I got a call from a friend of mine -"

Alex cut him off, "What friend?"

"That's not any of your business. Anyway, she told me -"

"You call me out of the blue, tell me you need help and I should drop everything to come to your rescue, force me to lie to the two people who are most important in my life, and yet the identity of your friend is none of my business?" Alex said, her eyebrows raised.

John sighed, "Her name is Missouri." He tried to continue with the whole reason they were there, "Over the past few months -"

"Who is she?" 

"I just told you!"

"I didn't ask what her name was, I asked who she was. How'd you meet her?" She asked without blinking an eye at the glare John was giving her.

He closed his eyes and breathed deep, he wasn't used to people interrupting him while he talked, Sam and Dean usually just sat quiet and listening intently with the occasional "Yes, Sir." or "No, Sir." when he asked them a question. The boys rarely ever questioned _him_. But he answered Alex nonetheless, "I met her after Mary's death, she's a psychic and she knows a hell of a lot about the paranormal. May I continue?" He added on sarcastically, expecting Alex to be satisfied with his answer.

"In a minute. You mean she's an actual psychic?"

"Yes." 

Alex snorted, "Oh, come on! Psychics aren't for real, they're just people who were too ugly to be actors."

John drummed his fingers on the arm rest of his chair, catching her eye and glaring at her. Alex stopped grinning and dropped her head dejectedly, and John continued.

"Yes, she's a real psychic. I trust her, and that should be enough for you too." John said, as Alex sat on the bed closest to his chair and crossed her legs, looking like a meek little kindergartener who just got yelled at for interrupting story time.

"Missouri heard of a family, the Johnsons, in Auburn that were killed in a fire when their six month old son's nursery started on fire."

Alex's eyes widened as she inhaled quickly, "Oh, no…" She mumbled sadly.

John ignored it, plowing on with the details, "Police discovered that the fire seemed to have originated somewhere in the nursery ceiling, just like when Mary was killed in Sam's nursery. Missouri came to our old house after the fire, also. She can sense things, supernatural presences, and most of the time she can tell what they are if she can get a good enough read on them. When she walked into the Johnsons' home, she called me right away and told me she believed it was the same thing that killed Mary. Yesterday, I found a relative of the Johnsons who lives about twenty minutes from here, he turned out to be a dead end, but that's why I wasn't in Auburn."

Alex's forehead crinkled as she thought of something, "The entire family was killed, right?" John nodded, and Alex fidgeted uneasily before going on, "Well, after you told me what happened to your wife, I did some research…"

John looked surprised, "You what?"

"I just thought I'd learn as much about it as I could…I didn't mean to be nosy or anything." Alex said quickly as John frowned at her.

"You never said anything about it to us."

Alex winced, "Well, I didn't say anything to you." She carried on before John could say anything to that, "I didn't find anything you three didn't already know, so basically I just caught up with what you know…Anyway, in each of the fires, the six month old child was either never found, or his mother was the only one killed. Was the Johnsons' baby killed?"

"Yea." John replied, knowing that Alex was questioning whether he was right or wrong and feeling a little irritated by it.

"So it doesn't really fit the whole routine then, does it? As far as we know, the demon that killed your wife has stuck to a pretty strict habit. Why would it change now, unless it's not really _the_ demon?"

"Look, Alex, I've been doing this a lot longer than you have so I think that my opinion is the one we'll be following."

"You're not even going to consider any other possibilities?" Alex said, outraged at the condescending tone in John's voice.

"No, I'm not. Missouri's never been wrong before, and neither have I." 

Alex snorted with disgust and said sarcastically, "Oh, yea, because you're right on by forcing Sam to miss so much school, trying to keep Dean and I apart was brilliant, and I've got to admit it was a really great idea to raise your sons like soldiers after their mother died."

"Alex!" John said warningly, "I'm not going to put up with you telling me I've been a bad father."

"I wasn't saying that!" She paused, "Well, actually I was…but I was mainly just proving my point. You're not always right, John!"

"That's enough!"

"I'm not your daughter, John, so you won't be able to shut me up that easily. And I'm not the kind of person who runs into thing blindly, especially when it involves the supernatural. We need to consider all possibilities before rushing in to kill this thing!"

"Fine, if that's what _you_ want to do, then do it, just so long as you're there to guard my back when I kill this demon."

Alex stared at him incredulously, "Fine! But if I turn out to be right you'd better have a really great apology speech prepared for me!" 

He scowled at her, then snatched his clothes and stomped into the bathroom, slamming the door behind him. "Oh, yea, really mature for a forty year old! Go hide in the bathroom, that's what I'd do!" She shouted with cross sarcasm, glaring at the bathroom door. Alex heard the shower turn on, then got changed into pajamas and flopped angrily into bed, covering her head so she wouldn't have to talk to John when he came out.

XXX

Alex moaned when she heard her phone ringing at six thirty the next morning and rolled over to grab it.

"Alex, don't!" John hissed, covering up the mouthpiece on his own cell phone, which he had up to his ear. She ignored him, thinking he just wanted it to be quiet while he talked to whoever it was he was talking to and flipped open her phone.

"Hello?"

"Hey!" Dean's voice came from the other end. "Did I wake you up? You sound tired."

"Hey, hun! Yea, I was still asleep, but that's alright. What's up?" 

"Nothing…I just wanted to call and say 'hi'." 

Alex smiled, then saw John scowling at her and listened in on a tid bit of his conversation.

John was talking to Sam, and he knew by the tone in Sam's voice that he and Dean had something up their sleeves.

"Who said that?" Sam said, trying to hide the suspicious happiness in his voice as he grinned at Dean, the two of them were still back in Tennessee and had found a way to figure out whether or not John and Alex were together.

"No one, Sam…It was the TV." John replied, trying to explain Alex's voice in the background.

Dean smirked at Sam and repeated what his little brother had said to Dad, "Who said that?" He asked Alex.

Alex froze, her eyes wide, "Shit…" she mumbled.

"What was that?" Dean said, not bothering to hide his smugness.

"Nothing!"

Sam jumped in again as Alex struggled with Dean, "Dad…are you with a girl?" He asked, using his best _Ew, my Dad has a girlfriend_ voice that teenagers are very well known for.

"What? Oh, God…No!" John said hurriedly.

Dean and Sam struggled to keep from laughing, they were both pissed that Dad and Alex had decided to lie to them, but hearing them stutter in an effort to keep the two of them in the dark was just too much fun.

"Alex…" Dean said, trying to sound hurt and upset, "Are you with another guy?" 

"Oh, for God's sake! No!" Alex replied. She looked at John, asking silently if they should just tell Sam and Dean the truth right now, but John shook his head.

Alex scowled and turned her attention back to Dean, who, to her surprise, was saying, "I know you're with Dad. Sam's talking to him right now."

And Sam was telling John, "Do you really think we're that stupid? We know you're with Alex. Dean's sitting across from me talking to her."

John winced, and Alex bit her lip. He nodded his head in Alex's direction, and she sighed, "Alright, fine. Yea, I'm with your Dad. But it's not my fault, he told me to lie to you!" She whined, blaming everything on John while he told Sam something similar.

"Where are you?" Dean asked.

"Kansas, we'll be in Auburn later today."

John's eyes widened and he yelled, "Alex!"

Alex flinched, _Oops…my bad…_ "Sorry!" She said to John.

"We'll be there in a day or two." Dean said, standing up and motioning for Sam to follow him. The two of them already had all their things packed and ready to go as they walked out of their motel room and to the car.

"What? Wait! No, Dean! Look, you're Dad wanted my help because he thinks you and Sam would be vulnerable on this job."

"What are you after? If it's that dangerous for us, then it is for you too, and that only gives me more incentive to get there faster."

"I'm not sure, you're Dad thinks it's -" Alex stopped, John had leapt out of his chair and placed his hand over her mouth. She stared at him for a second, then he took his hand away, "Never mind." She said into the phone.

Dean frowned, "Oh, no you don't. He doesn't want you to tell us, does he?" Alex stayed quiet, "Fine, I'll talk to him myself. Love you, babe, I'll call you when we're close to Auburn."

Alex closed her eyes, wishing she were better at keeping her big mouth shut as she heard Dean say, "Sam, give me your phone." And then he hung up on her, she glanced at John who was now talking to Dean.

"It's good to know that Alex's safety is a top priority for you, Dad." Dean said bitterly.

"That's exactly what she said." John replied, pinching the bridge of his nose to help fight back his newly developed headache.

"What are you hunting?" Dean asked, determined.

"Nothing that concerns you or your brother. Don't come anywhere near here." John said, adding on, "That's an order."

That just pissed Dean off even more, "Alex is my girlfriend, and you've dragged her into something that could get her killed! I'm pretty sure that that makes it my concern!"

"You and Alex are a lot alike…" John mumbled, thinking to the previous night and how Alex had said something alike to get John to tell her about Missouri.

"You know what, don't tell me. Sam and I can probably make it to Auburn by tomorrow, and we'll figure it out then." Dean said angrily, "See you."

John scowled when Dean hung up on him, glaring at Alex, "Good job."

"What! It's your own damn fault for lying to them in the first place!"

"I did it for their own good!"

"I don't think they see it that way." 

He frowned, "Come on, we've got to get moving." 

"What?" Alex said, guessing right away what John's intentions were, "We're not going to track this thing down and be able to kill it before they get here, you know that right?"

"We can try." John said, already zipping his bag closed after shoving all his things into it.

"John!" Alex said incredulously, "They'll be able to help! You give them a lot less credit than you should! They're good at what they do, and you know it!" 

John paused slightly to give her a _Shut up and do what you're told_ look, and continued his packing.

She glared at him, "So what if it _does_ turn out to be the demon you're after, huh? What then?"

"What do you mean?" John asked, not looking at her.

"I mean you have no sure-fire way to kill it. You're risking your own life foolishly, and mine." 

John didn't say anything, and he didn't meet her eyes. 

Alex gave up that tactic and took a new approach, "You don't want Sam here though, you couldn't care less about Dean. When you called me, you said you didn't want _Sam_ anywhere near Kansas, then you added on Dean's name just to keep me happy. Why?" She planted her hands on her hips and stared at him, waiting expectantly for an answer.

He stopped and looked her in the eye, "I've got a lot of different theories, Alex, and not enough time to recite them all. Once I know for sure what's going on, you'll be one of the first to know, but for right now, you just need to trust me, alright?"

XXX

"Your father's insane." Alex said angrily as she speed down the highway toward Auburn.

"Yea, tell me something I don't know." Dean said with a grim laugh. "Just be careful until I get there, alright?"

Alex sighed, "Maybe you _shouldn't_ come. It's not that I don't want you here, but your Dad seemed pretty unnerved at the thought of you and Sam coming…I didn't even think his truck could go that fast."

"Since when do you care what my Dad thinks?"

"Since he apologized for being an ass." Alex replied, turning off onto a back road that led toward the late Johnsons' home. "I'd love to have the two of you here, God knows I could use the help."

"What do you mean?"

"Your Dad's so determined that what we're after is -" Alex paused, stopping herself from saying "_the thing that killed your mother_" and bit her lip. "Well, he thinks he knows what we're up against, and he won't even consider any other possibilities."

"That's classic Dad for you…" Dean muttered, pushing the Impala's gas pedal a little further to the floor. "I take it your considering everything for him." 

"Pretty much. Listen, I've got to go, I'm almost to the Johnsons' house." Alex said distractedly as she tried to downshift and steer with one hand, the other holding her cell phone to her ear. She had filled Sam and Dean in on the situation earlier, but she skipped over the part about how they may be hunting the demon that destroyed their lives.

Good call, that's not exactly something that will improve a relationship…

"Alright," Dean sighed, "Is Dad going with you?"

"No, he went to the police station to see if he can dig up anything interesting." 

"We should be there early tomorrow morning. Be careful?" 

"Am I ever reckless?"

"Yes."

Alex grinned, rolling her eyes, "Bye, Dean."

"See you."

XXX

Alex slammed the driver's side door on the Mustang and looked up at the white, ranch style home before her. There were flowers planted in expertly designed gardens in front, three of those fake deer that people think make their lawns look more exotic and wild, and lawn gnomes…Alex was tempted to pull out her shotgun for a little target practice, lawn gnomes to her were like clowns were to Sammy, except she was more physically violent toward the things she was afraid of. Sam normally just cringed and tried to pretend like nothing was wrong. 

She settled for kicking one as she walked by it on the way to the house. It would have looked weird to anyone who was watching, but Alex couldn't help but grin when the ugly pointy-toed little gnome fell face first into the dirt.

When people look up "freak" in the dictionary, Alex's name should be one of the examples… 

Half of the house was completely destroyed by fire, Alex didn't even have to go through a door to get inside, all she had to do was step over the charred outer wall of the living room to get in. She listened intently to her EMF reader while her sharp eyes roamed over the remains of the living area.

"So much for your demon ideas, John…" She mumbled to herself. Alex could smell ozone, which meant it was a spirit, not a demon. She thoroughly investigated the charred furniture, what used to be family heirlooms and keepsakes, and the blackened building structure. Her EMF only went off a few times, and the signal wasn't strong, so she guessed whatever spirit she was dealing with had merely touched the items that sent the EMF into action.

The second floor had been where the nursery was located, Alex had studied blueprints of the house before going to it, and the child's room had nothing left to it. When Alex looked up, while standing in the middle of the burnt dining room, there was open sky above her, and a spare bedroom that had been turned into what looked like an office was above her and to her right in what was left of the second story. She assumed the nursery had been right above where she was standing, and when she scanned over the floor beneath her she saw what seemed to have been child's toys, a broken crib, and similar items scattered here and there.

When there seemed to be nothing else paranormal to find, Alex turned around, looking down at her EMF to turn it off. She stopped dead in her tracks when the EMF started picking up a strong signal. Alex's jaw dropped slightly and she looked up in order to see whatever it was that was sending the EMF into fits.

It wasn't hard to find, the spirit was standing right in front of her. She could make out clearly that it was male, he had a strong jaw and high cheekbones, a wide nose set below green eyes and dark brown hair. She didn't have much time to study his face before she noticed flames sprouting from its skin, the fire quickly grew and before Alex knew it the phantom's entire body was blocked from view by an orange, yellow, and blue blaze.

"Holy -" Alex didn't have time to finish, she dove to the floor to escape a burst of fire that sped toward her. She quickly cocked the shotgun she'd been carrying along with her, aimed it toward the ghost, and pulled the trigger. It disappeared with a hiss, like water being thrown on a campfire and Alex kept her body braced for a few seconds to make sure it was gone.

"Whoa…" She breathed. _Talk about Déjà vu…John told me that when he went back into his house to try and save Mary the fire leapt at him, like an attack…But this isn't a demon, and I don't think he's wrong in saying a demon was definitely what murdered Mary. So what the hell's going on? This spirit is like…like a supernatural copy ca_t. Alex raised her eyebrows, _Is that possible?_

It was time to check out the local library and do some digging of her own.

XXX

"Don't care…don't care…don't care…really don't care…" Alex mumbled lazily to herself as she clicked through page after page of newspaper articles online. Nothing else interesting had come up yet, except for the article about Eric Lyndon and his family. Alex found a picture of the family and Eric Lyndon was definitely the spirit she'd seen back at the house. The Lyndons had twin six year old daughters and a six month old son when they were killed, the night of their son's six month birthday, in a house fire. Their son's body was never recovered, however.

After about forty-five minutes of snooping, Alex found out that the Lyndons had been the previous occupants of the Johnsons' home. And after talking to the librarian, a nosy old woman in her late seventies or so who was overjoyed to share all her gossip with Alex, and who just happened to have dated the Lyndons' next-door neighbor, she found that Eric Lyndon had never been able to hold a job, his wife, Maria, worked full time to support their family, while the kids were normally left with a neighbor or babysitter. Eric, on the rare occasions that he happened to be home, was usually seen battered and bloody after he'd come home late in the night.

Sound familiar?

It took almost twenty minutes to shut the old librarian up long enough for Alex to tell her she had to leave. So two annoying fake kisses on each cheek from the old lady, one choking gag-reflex from Alex later and she was finally out the door.

As she walked to her car, her mind was working overtime, _Sounds like Eric was a player…The Lyndons' deaths match everything I've researched about the demon John's after, so I wouldn't doubt it was the same demon. Poor guy, he and his family were killed by one of the things he was up against. I don't understand why he'd kill the Johnsons, though. I didn't find any connection between he and the Johnsons, so it can't be revenge. Anger, maybe? Sorrow? What if Eric, undoubtedly, tried to save his family but failed…that's enough to piss off any spirit._

She dialed John's number and waited for him to pick up, "Hey, John." Alex said quickly, "Guess what I found?" 

"Not now, I'm at their house and I think I've got the demon trapped…"

Alex's jaw dropped and she stopped, her keys halfway in the Mustang's driver side door. "What!?" She stammered.

"Get here, quick, I need your help!" John said grimly. Alex could hear something breaking in the background.

"Oh, God! John, wait!" Alex tried to tell him, but John hung up the phone. _You stubborn son of a bitch!_ She thought bitterly as she yanked open the door, got in, and put her car to the test. Luckily, it passed with flying colors and Alex was in front of the Johnsons' home within ten minutes.

Alex didn't remember grabbing a shotgun, and she didn't remember running into the house, her body just reacted to the situation and her mind was pulled along for the ride. Next thing she knew she was standing beside John, facing a very intimidating-looking blaze of orange and blue fire. 

Alex shot at it twice, the rock salt doing its job and repelling the spirit. The whole thing was fairly uneventful until she turned to John.

He looked a little shocked, his determination for this to be the demon had given him high hopes, and Alex's shotgun shells with simple but effective rock salt dashed those dreams. John stared dismally at the spot where the spirit had just been.

Alex was fuming, she noted a few minor burns on John's arm and hands, but it didn't stop her from screaming at him. "What the hell is the matter with you?!" She glanced around them and noticed a few candles burning, random inscriptions in the ground and some kind of symbol painted on the floor behind where they were standing.

John scowled at her, "I did what I thought was right."

Alex's eyes widened as she watched him incredulously, "And you thought a fucking séance was the right thing?! Why don't we join hands and meditate and then pull out the goddam Ouija board, maybe that'll help!"

"It's not a séance -"

"I don't give a shit what the hell it is! It was stupid! You're so damn wrapped up in finding the thing that killed your wife that you won't even stop and consider everything before barging in! You might as well hold a gun to your own head and pull the trigger yourself!" Alex ranted, she was furious with him for being so reckless with his life.

John looked a bit taken aback at this little one hundred and twenty pound brunette who, at the moment, was ten times more intimidating than anything paranormal he'd ever faced.

"You've managed to scare the crap out of me and piss me off at the same time! Normally it's one or the other, but no, my jackass father goes and forces both -" Alex yelled, throwing her hands in the air when John suddenly cut her off.

"What did you say?" He asked, a small grin playing across his lips.

Alex didn't get it right away, "The part about you pissing me off, or the part where I called you a jackass?" She said irritably.

"No…" John told her carefully, "The part just _after_ you called me a jackass."

Alex paused for a second, her face confused as her mind drew a blank. But all at once she gasped and her hand flew to her mouth.

"You called me your _father_." John said teasingly, "Didn't you?!"

She looked horrified, mainly just because she'd meant what she said and it kind of scared her. "No! I mean…" She shrugged her shoulders and smiled grimly, "Yea?"

John couldn't help but laugh, Alex looked completely shocked over what she'd said, and he felt the way she looked. "You say that like it's a bad thing."

Alex gave him a fake laugh, making him chuckle, "I don't know what to say." She said confusedly.

John breathed deep and placed an arm around her shoulder, leading her out of the half destroyed house, "Well, let's just go find a place to sleep for the night and wait for Sam and Dean to get here tomorrow."

"Sounds good to me…"

XXX

Alex lay staring at the moon-illuminated ceiling, shadows creeping slowly down the walls as the full moon inched its way through the sky. It was close to two o'clock in the morning and she couldn't sleep, her emotions tore at the insides of her stomach and chest as she tried to think things through, and she finally threw the blankets off of her body, grabbed a sweatshirt, and snuck out the door of the motel room.

She and John were staying in one of those motels where each of the room doors lead straight outside to the parking lot. Alex took a quick glance around her to see if there was anyone else around, but at that hour all she could hear were a few snores coming from the other rooms. She sat on the hood of the Mustang, hugging her knees to her chest to keep warm. A single tear rolled down her face as she stared at the crystal clear skies above her.

"I hope you don't hate me, Dad…" She said quietly, but clearly, to the heavens. "It's only been a little over a month since you and mom died, and I'm already moving on. It shouldn't be that easy…" She tugged at the bottom of her pajama pants in order to cover up her ankles and pulled her sweater over her head. Alex took a long, slightly shaky breath and tasted salt on her lips where more tears had fallen. "I feel like I'm replacing you…" She watched the blackness overhead, yearning to hear her father's voice, wishing she could talk to him just one more time, but everything stayed silent. "I'm sorry, Dad…For everything."

"I'm sure he'd want you to be happy."

Alex jumped at the sound of John's voice, sliding a few inches down the hood of the car, "John…" She swiftly wiped away the wet streaks on her face and looked at him, "Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up. How long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough." He walked over to her and leaned against the side of the Mustang, he wasn't used to being the sensitive type and was feeling a little uncomfortable. "I meant what I said. He's your father, and if he's anything like me -"

"Surprisingly, he was…" Alex said quietly, smiling gratefully at him for trying to comfort her.

John bowed his head, smiling, and continued, "Well then I i_know_/i that he wouldn't want you to keep grieving over his death, that he'd want you to move on with your life, and that he _definitely_ doesn't hate you."

Alex stayed quiet for a few seconds, then she gave him a small smile, "That was really sweet of you, John, and thank you."

"I didn't do anything, but you're welcome anyway." John told her, reaching over and patting her arm lightly. He sighed, "It's two a.m…and freezing out here, let's go back inside. Dean and Sam will probably be before long, and I don't know about you, but I'm going to try and catch some sleep before they get here."

"Yea, I'll be there in a minute." Alex replied as John shrugged and walked back into the room. She felt like somehow she _had_ just talked to her Dad, and it made her realize it was alright to view John as a parent, so she glanced slyly up at the sky, "Thanks, Dad."

Alex was about ready to scoot off of her car when she heard a familiar low rumble. She grinned as the noise got closer, and seconds later the Impala came rolling into the lot. Dean and Sam parked alongside Alex's Mustang; both of them climbed out of the car and slammed the doors.

"Sammy, take this stuff inside will you?" Dean chucked his backpack over the top of the car, hitting Sam square in the chest as John opened the door to their motel, having heard the Impala drive up.

Sam shot him a nasty look, but obeyed the request nonetheless.

"Hey!" Alex said reproachfully, "You know, one of these days he's going to grow up and kick your ass as payback for all the mean things you've done to him!"

"But in the meantime, how about you kick his ass for me, Alex?" Sam said over his shoulder with a smirk as John took a bag from him.

"And ruin that pretty face?" Alex said back, making Sam roll his eyes in disgust.

Alex and Dean watched them close the door, and Dean stood at the front of the Mustang, he playfully gripped Alex's ankles and pulled her down the hood of the car. She laughed, fighting gently to keep away from him, but he pulled both her legs to either side of him.

"I should leave more often." She told Dean, smiling up at him.

He slid a hand underneath her hair and onto the back of her neck and leaned in close enough to where his mouth brushed against hers, "Very funny…" He said, his voice muffled against her skin.

She giggled and said slyly, "But it makes things so much more interesting."

XXX

Alex finished rattling off the situation to Sam and Dean, while John sat off in a corner doing God knows what.

"All we've got left to do is figure out how to kill it." Alex finished.

"Easy." Sam said instantly.

Dean and Alex watched him, even John looked up temporarily.

"How?" Alex asked, genuinely curious.

"We kill him the same way he and his family were murdered. Fire." He told them, casually lighting a lighter over and over again.

"But this spirit _is_ fire, or kind of anyway. It's torched itself both times I've seen it, the first time when I went alone and the second time when Mr. Invincible over there tried to kill it with candles." Alex jerked her head in John's direction, scowling briefly at him.

"So what's so wrong about giving it a dose of its own medicine?" Sam asked.

"Nothing." Dean replied, "It's actually a really good idea. If we can find a way to trap it inside a ring of rock salt, then torch the thing and burn the rest of the house to the ground, it just might work."

Alex shrugged agreeably and nodded her head, "What'd you think, John?"

John was watching Sam intently, proud his son, "I think you're right. We can finish this thing off tonight."

XXX

Alex, Sam, Dean, and John all got out of the Impala. It was about half an hour after dark, just dark enough to where no one who may have been around would see what they were doing – at least until the Johnsons' house went up in flames, anyway!

"Dean, Sam." Alex muttered to get their attention. They each turned around just in time to easily catch the shotguns she'd lightly tossed in their direction.

"Ready?" John asked, already striding toward the house, and not waiting for an answer from them.

The four of them wandered through the house for about fifteen minutes. They were in a spare bedroom downstairs when Dean started getting bored of the monotony.

"When's this son of a bitch planning on showing up?" He said moodily.

"I know…I mean, it's one thing to be fashionably late but this is just plain rude!" Alex said humorously as Dean grinned and shook his head at her.

Just then Sam slammed into Dean's back, he tripped and fell and just about knocked Dean forward onto the floor, "Sam! What's your prob -" Dean started to yell, but the three of them turned around to see what had Sam on the edge and saw orange flames creeping through the doorway toward them.

Dean swiftly grabbed Sam's arm and helped him to his feet, he pushed his little brother in front of him and away from the spirit which was speedily throwing extra flames in their direction. Alex and John were close on Sam and Dean's heels.

"Alex! Give me the salt!" John yelled and Alex tossed him her backpack. John caught it easily and dug the salt out of it while still running, then stopped and turned around.

Alex skidded to a stop and watched John, her shotgun already up and aimed, ready to shoot if John got in trouble. "Dean!" She shouted.

Sam and Dean both halted. Sam ran and dug a small one-gallon container of gasoline out of Alex's bag, which John had thrown to the floor.

Dean knelt next to him, "I don't think so…" He protectively snatched the gasoline out of Sam's hands and handed Sam the book of matches instead.

John was busy trying to evade spits of fire and hot air as he quickly spread a wide circle of salt around the spirit. The spirit itself wasn't sure who to corner; Alex was doing her best to keep its attention on her while Dean readied himself to pour gas over the salt, John was about three feet from finishing the circle, and Sam stood just close enough to toss a match when it was needed.

Hello? The thing's made of fire…do you really think you're going to need _matches_?!

John got to the start of his salt ring when the spirit caught on, a burst of fresh, sizzling fire flew toward him, forcing John to throw himself to the ground to avoid it.

Sam kicked into action; he dashed toward the tin of salt that John had dropped.

"Sam! No!" Alex's heart leapt when she saw the fearless little fifteen year old so close to something that was doing its best to kill them. When she saw the spirit reach toward Sam with one of its arms, which were elongated with firey arms and finger tips, she aimed for the thing's head and fired.

The spirit backed of just long enough for Dean to help John get back to his feet. After shooting, Alex immidiatly pelted toward Sam. The spirit was back, and even more pissed off this time, Alex felt heat singe the back of her neck and arms as she ripped Sam out of its range and kept herself between him and the spirit.

John and Dean fired their own guns, giving Alex enough time to shove Sam protectively out of the way and finish the salt circle. Dean flew back to her side, clutching the small gas tank. "Alex, move!" He ordered, and she quickly sped back toward John and Sam.

The spirit made an angry sounding hiss as it realized it couldn't escape the trap that they'd laid around it. Flames burst upward, the only way they could go, as it tried desperately to find a way out.

Dean backed quickly away from it, unscrewing the cap on the gas tank as he went. He tossed the container's contents at the spirit and instantly dropped the tank and ran to Alex, John, and Sam.

The fire caught, following the splashed trail back to the gasoline container and then slowly creeping to the rest of the house while the spirit remained trapped.

"Come on!" Dean yelled over the roar of the crackling and snapping fire that was consuming the area. He opened the nearest window, which was only about four feet from the ground outside, and motioned for Sam to go first, then Alex. John waited for Dean to get out first, then clambered out after them.

The four of them watched just long enough to ensure that the fire would spread to the rest of the house, knowing that even if the fire department were called it would be too late for the spirit to evade its own destruction.

"We should get out of here, someone's bound to show up and I'm not really too interested in spending the next few days in an interrogation room…" Dean said, and the rest of them agreed, all of them getting into the Impala as Dean revved the engine and they sped away from the blaze.

XXX

Alex winced in the backseat of the Impala, next to Sam, as she ran a hand over the base of her neck underneath her pony-tail. "Damn…the things I do for you, kid." She said with half-hearted anger toward Sam.

"Sorry…but thanks." Sam said sympathetically, pulling a first aid kit out from underneath the driver's seat and searching through it for a burn cream.

"Are you alright?" Dean asked, worry hinting in his voice, as he glanced at Alex and Sam in the rearview mirror.

"You're not hurt, are you Sam?" Alex asked.

"No, thanks to you." He'd found the antibiotics he'd been looking for and handed the bottle to Alex.

"Then yea, we're fine." Alex replied, unscrewing the bottle's cap. She sighed deeply when she felt her cell phone vibrate in her jacket pocket.

"Who the hell's calling me…the only people I talk to are you three." She paused at that thought, "God, I'm pathetic…" Sam and Dean chuckled as she smirked and flipped her phone open.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Alex…" A deep and uncomfortably familiar voice said.

Alex gasped, her jaw dropped, and her eyes widened as she stared at nothing.

"Holy shit…" She whispered, "_Evan_?"

"Evan? As in your ex-boyfriend, Evan?" Dean asked incredulously, John turned to watch Alex and Sam was already staring at her.

Alex simply nodded her head slowly.


	6. Chapter 5

It took Alex's mind a few seconds to completely process the situation at hand. Her mind raced; talking to Evan, her first love, was hard enough _without _having Dean, her first _true_ love, glance at her in the rearview mirror every three seconds.

Alex cleared her throat and stammered clumsily, "Um…What's up?"

Evan hesitated and since Alex knew him better than most people did, she knew that something important was coming her way because Evan wasn't the kind of person to pause before saying something. Evan usually blurted out whatever he wanted to say, whenever he wanted, without caring about how the recipient would feel or react.

She hardly had time to brace herself before he said, "Al…I think I made a mistake."

_Oh, God…please don't say what I think you're about to say!_ She grimaced, then asked slowly and apprehensively, "How so?"

"In more ways than one…" He told her, his voice sounding tired and hoarse.

"And you admit it?" She heard him give a small, deep, half-hearted laugh.

"Yea, you're the first person I admit it too…I mean, I just…_left_ you after your mom and dad…" His voice faded.

She struggled to find words that might comfort him; he had hurt her, after-all, making him feel better about what he'd done wasn't on her "to-do" list. So she just settled for, "Evan, it's not a big deal."

"No, it is! I shouldn't have treated you the way I did when we were together."

"Evan, stop -"

"I'm sorry, Al…"

"Evan -"

"But I really need you right now."

Alex was about to tell him to shut it but instead she just blurted, "What?!"

Sam, John, and Dean all exchanged glances at the stunned and disgusted look on Alex's face.

"There's some really freaky shit going on around here, and I know you always helped your grandpa out with all that stuff."

"Oh!" _Thank God…_ She breathed a sigh of relief, "Well, in that case...What's going on?"

Evan paused, "Wait a second. What did you _think_ I was going to say?" He asked her, sounding sly and overly-curious.

"Nothing." Alex told him quickly, "Well, you sounded like you were going in a _whole_ different direction with this conversation."

Evan understood what she meant, and laughed, "Yea, like I would say that to _you_ after what I did…Knowing you, you'd probably do something nasty down near my nether regions..."

Alex snorted and couldn't help but laugh, "You're right, I probably would."

The two of them giggled for a few more seconds, then Alex repeated, "Alright, Evan, time to tell me what's going on."

He seemed to have a hard time finding the right words to use, "I think you and I should talk in person, it's not really something that I feel like I should tell you over the phone."

"Try me."

"Alex, it's Rochelle and Jason -"

Rochelle had been one of Alex's closest friends in high school, she was the only one who still treated Alex the same after her parents' death, and she was also the only person to bother trying to call and keep in touch after Alex took off with the Winchesters. Jason was Rochelle's boyfriend of four years; he was another fairly close friend of Alex's.

"What about them?" She blurted worriedly, interrupting Evan.

Evan sighed, "I told this was something I should tell you in person…"

"Well now you've peaked my curiosity, so unless you'd like to further jeopardize the safety of your '_nether regions_' I suggest you spit it out!"

There wasn't any easier way to say it, "They're dead, Al." Evan said, his voice gruff.

That caught her off guard, she gasped and her mouth dropped, she wanted to say something, but all that came out was a small squeak. _What was I expecting? That they got married?! "Really freaky shit" and happiness just don't go together…_

Sam shifted next to her, looking worried.

It took a few seconds for her to get over the initial shock gain back the ability to talk, "No…" She mumbled, her voice barely above a whisper, "How?"

"Police found them at Jason's house. They aren't saying a whole lot; they were each shot in the head with the same gun, the only sets of fingerprints on the gun were Rochelle's and Jason's. They aren't sure whether it's a homicide or a double suicide…but you know them just as well as I do, they just weren't the kind of people who would kill themselves…" Evan's voice shook slightly; he and Jason had been best friends since grade school, Alex knew Evan probably wasn't taking his death very well.

She shook her head sadly, fighting back a tear, "And they were so happy together…I just can't picture either of them killing the other..."

"I know, but that's why I called you."

Alex's forehead crinkled in thought, "You think something _paranormal_ killed them? No offense meant, Evan, but you're not the kind of person to think of that kind of stuff. What makes you think this isn't just a common crime?"

If the Winchesters were dogs, all of their ears would have been pointed in Alex's direction…They stayed quiet and listened to everything she was saying.

"Alex! You _know_ them! Rochelle and Jason wouldn't _kill_ each other! I didn't think of you and your" He paused, trying to find the right words, "freaky-ass occupation until a few days after they were found. It wasn't my first thought, if that makes you feel any better. But what other explanation can you think of?"

"Evan, I need something more to go on than just a hunch!"

"Then listen to me! The night before they were murdered we went to this party; there's this one girl, she's new, her name is Maleri, I don't know how to explain it, she's just…weird. I saw her and Jason head up to one of the upstairs bedrooms about an hour after we got there, Rochelle didn't notice until he came back down with her. She looked pissed, I mean, what girl wouldn't be, it sure as hell _looked_ as if something had happened."

"_Did_ something happen?"

"I'll get to that. Anyway, I saw Rochelle go after Maleri. Rochelle was bitching at her for a few seconds, Maleri had this smile on her face…like she was _happy_ that Rochelle was trying to kick her ass, and then Rochelle just stopped, I saw her kind of go limp for a sec, and then she just turned around and walked away…"

Alex sighed deeply, "Evan, this doesn't sound like anything significant, just your typical, jealousy induced cat-fight."

"Hold on, I'm getting there. Later that night, I was talking to Jason and I asked him about what had happened when he went upstairs with Maleri."

"And?"

Evan hesitated, "Uh, well, his eyes."

"What about them?"

"He got pissed, he started going off about how Rochelle was such a bitch and how he should have cheated on her; he basically said everything the normal Jason would _never_ say."

Alex raised her eyebrows, "The _normal_ Jason? What do you mean?"

"As soon as I said Maleri's name his eyes clouded and I thought I saw them turn kind of metallic green around the edges. I never thought anything of it until now."

"That's not normally something that happens to peoples' eyes all the time, Evan."

"I'd been drinking, I thought maybe I imagined it."

"Maybe you did."

"No, I know I didn't."

"How do you know for sure?"

"Just trust me, okay?!"

"Alright, alright." She sighed again, rolling her eyes, "Evan, I still don't think that this has anything to do with the supernatural…You were trashed, I doubt you actually saw Jason's eyes change. And Maleri's smug little grin when Rochelle was yelling at her? Doesn't sound like anything at all. So what exactly do you expect me to do?"

"I expect you to come back and help me find out what the hell happened!"

"I've got more serious things to worry about -"

"Alex!" Evan said incredulously.

"Look, Evan! I think this is just a bunch of coincidence, and it's hardly even that!"

"You don't believe me."

"I don't really. But I'll do some research, okay? If I find anything, I'll give you a call."

Even exhaled sharply, "Yea, fine." He said, trying and failing to keep the angry edge out of his voice.

She bit her lip, trying not to yell. "I'm just as upset as you about their murder, Evan."

"Sure as hell doesn't sound like you are. I'll talk to you later, Al." He finished firmly and hung up the phone without waiting for an answer from Alex.

Alex flipped her phone closed and leaned her head back against the seat, wincing when the leather touched the burns on the back of her neck. She ran a hand over her eyes, then noticed Sam, Dean, and John still watching her.

"What's going on?" Sam asked.

She told them everything that Evan had told her. "Does it sound like something more bizarre to you?"

"Not really, sounds like your boyfriend just wants to get you back." Dean muttered.

"Why would you think _that_?" Alex asked, her voice a bit icy.

Dean didn't reply, he just shrugged.

"He's upset that his friends died, I'm sure he's just trying to find a little bit of closure by attempting to find whoever killed them."

"Or _whatever_ killed them…" Sam mumbled.

"So you think it might be something more than just your everyday domestic violence?" Alex asked.

"It might be." Sam replied casually. "Are you sure you don't want to listen to him just because he's your ex?"

Alex frowned at him, "You're too smart for your own good." She closed her eyes and sighed, "I really could have done without that phone call…"

XXX

Dean and Alex were trying to listen in on a conversation John was having, they could tell it was serious from John's tone of voice, but he noticed them watching and stood up and headed outside.

"Hey, Alex." Sam said about an hour later, after all four of them had gotten back to the hotel and were laying around relaxing after their ordeal. "Check this out."

Alex stood up and strode over to the couch, where Sam was sitting with the laptop in his lap. She plopped down next to him, making him bounce slightly, and asked, "What's up?"

Sam turned the screen toward her; there were four different windows that he had pulled up from the internet, one had Rochelle and Jason's prom night picture next to the heading _Champaign Seniors Found Dead_ and three other similarly titled articles. Each of the articles described the deaths of three individuals, not couples, all males, and each from different towns in Illinois. Sam waited patiently for her to read through them.

Alex skimmed through the three pieces, trying not to look at the picture of Jason and Rochelle, and noted that all of the others were killed in different ways. One had his throat slashed, the second was killed in a car accident when he apparently drove his car full-speed into the side of a brick building, and the last was found hung to death.

"You think these might have something to do with Jason and Rochelle, right?" Alex asked, catching Dean's curiosity and he walked over and sat on the opposite side of Sam.

Sam nodded.

"They were all killed in different ways, they're not couples, not to mention different cities. What's the connection?" Dean asked after scanning over them himself.

Sam smirked, then pulled up a photo copy of a school record. The name at the top was Maleri Desato.

"Look at the last four schools she's been to." Sam hinted.

"Champaign, Dixon, Jacksonville, and Mount Vernon." Dean listed.

Alex reached over Sam's hand and minimized the school record screen so they could re-read the articles.

"Rochelle and Jason from Champaign…The others from Dixon, Jacksonville, and Mount Vernon. And…" She brought the school record back up, "all were killed while Maleri was still attending their school." Alex smiled and nodded her head approvingly at Sam, "All this in less than an hour…Sammy, you're amazing!"

"But I've got a couple questions for you, wonder boy." Dean said.

"What's that?"

"What's the motive? Why are these murders all connected to this Maleri chick? Did you check into her history? Did you check into the victims' history?" Dean asked.

Sam nodded, "Yea, but I didn't find anything out of the ordinary. As far as I can tell, aside from the fact that Maleri went to the same school as all the victims, there aren't any other connections."

"So it must be Maleri." Alex said, "We just have to figure out _what_ she is, why she's killing people, and kill her."

John interrupted, having come back inside, "Our jobs are never that easy. But you'll have to figure it out on your own, I've got to take off."

"Again?" Sam asked.

"You're going to let your nineteen and fifteen year old sons go on a hunt by themselves…_again_?" Alex said, raising an eyebrow. "Do you do that often?"

"All the time." Dean said, watching his dad, "What's going on?"

"We've got another job to do, sounds like a haunting, maybe a curse. I'll be able to handle it on my own. You three go to Champaign and figure out what's going on there."

Dean frowned, "You're sure?"

"Positive. Give me a call if you need anything."

"You're leaving right now?" Sam asked, Alex noticed that he looked a little bit upset at the idea.

"I have to, Sammy, it'll take me at least a day or two to get there." John said, walking over to Sam and messing up his hair playfully. "I'll be back."

"Yea, alright." Sam said sadly.

"Be careful, okay?" John said, catching Dean's eye.

Dean understood what that look meant; he was supposed to keep an eye on Sam. "We'll be fine. See you."

The three of them watched John walk out the door.

Alex grinned at Sam and tried to cheer him up, "Aw…is Sammy gonna miss his Daddy?" She asked in a babyish tone of voice.

Sam smirked and punched her playfully in the shoulder, "Shut it, Alex!"

She punched him back and giggled when Sam shoved the laptop out of his lap and lunged at her across the couch. "Oh! You want to play rough, do you? Bring it on, Sammy!"

Sam laughed, then wedged himself between her and the couch and shoved her hard in the back with his hands, forcing her to topple off of the couch, and then tried jumping off the couch and pinning her.

Alex rolled to the side to avoid having Sam fall on top of her, and reached for a pillow off of the nearest bed. Sam came at her, smiling, and she gave him a face-full of goose-feather pillow.

"Hey!" Sam yelled indignantly, then leaped for a pillow himself.

Dean laughed at them and grabbed Alex around the waist, she tried kicking him off in order to smack Sam in the head again with her pillow, but he held on tight and let Sam have a free go at her.

"Dean!" Alex giggled, "You're supposed to be on my side!"

He smiled and let go of her, "You know, you're right!" He said slyly, catching her eye. She smirked evilly back at him.

"Uh, oh…" Sam muttered, seeing Alex and Dean leap for him. He chucked his pillow at Dean's head and jumped onto the bed trying to avoid them, but Dean tackled his knees and Sam toppled down onto the bed face-first. Alex ran around the other side of the bed and tickled him until he gasped out _Uncle!_ then she and Dean backed off, laughing.

Sam gasped for breath and smirked at them both, "I thought big sisters were supposed to be nice to their little brothers!"

Alex's eyes widened a little bit, none of the Winchesters had referred to her as a family member, and she was touched. She shook off the slight shock that she had felt, and smiled ruefully at him, "Well, I suppose when the big sister is _dating_ the big brother, things are already messed up."

Sam snorted, "Can you imagine telling a stranger that? They'll think we're a bunch of hillbilly freaks."

"I know! It could be fun." Dean said, smiling. "But then again, all a stranger has to do is take one look at you, Sam, and they already know you're a freak."

Dean hardly got his last word out when Sam came pelting toward him, "You're dead, Dean!"

Alex laughed and watched them wrestle playfully for a few seconds, smiling happily to herself. _Sister…I could get used to that._ She sat down and crossed her arms over her chest, happy just to sit and watch her newly found family try and beat each other up.

XXX

Sam and Alex led the way to Evan's house in the Mustang. Alex had refused to leave it behind again when Dean tried to convince her that they should take only one car. Alex also refused to drive; Sam hadn't yet learned how to drive a stick-shift, but Alex gave him a quick lesson and he drove the entire way to Illinois.

Evan lived only a few streets away from where Alex used to live in an upper-class area of Champaign. She was thankful that she didn't have to drive by her old house to get to Evan's, it was bad enough being back under the current circumstances, seeing her house would have made things even more heart wrenching than they already were.

"That's his house, right there." Alex told Sam, pointing to a two story, off-white, Victorian style house with a cast-iron fence and gates in the driveway up on their left. "Park up next to his Mercedes."

"Exactly how rich is this guy?" Sam asked, in awe of the perfectly groomed lawn, impeccably manicured gardens, high-tech cast-iron gates that parted when they pulled into the driveway, and Evan's silver Mercedes that was parked next to a BMW and Lexus.

"Filthy." Alex responded. She couldn't help but feel grateful that they'd at least stopped to wash the cars. After her time on the road with the Winchesters, she felt extremely out of place in this ritzy neighborhood, despite the fact that she used to live there.

Dean pulled in behind them, parked his car, and slammed the door to the Impala. He raised an eyebrow at the expensive cars, "Well, he's not spoiled at all." He said sarcastically to Alex.

"Be nice." Alex said back, pulling her shirt down a little bit to hide the little bit of skin that was peaking through beneath it. "Remember, I used to live this life too."

"I try not to." Dean replied, causing Alex to glare at him.

She walked ahead of Dean and Sam and up the marble steps to Evan's doorway, she was about to knock on the door when it flew open.

"Aly!"

Alex barely had time to think, much less react, when something small came pelting through the door and smashed into her stomach, knocking the wind out of her and toppling her down onto her butt.

"Roxy!" A deep voice came from the doorway, "Roxanne!" But Alex couldn't see who it was, her vision was obscured by wild, curly blonde hair.

Alex burst out laughing and tried to peel the little girl off of her chest, she'd wrapped her arms tightly around Alex's neck and wouldn't let go while Dean and Sam chuckled behind her.

"Hey, Rox." Alex giggled, "Ouch, hun, you're pulling my hair!" She continued in fits of giggles, trying to catch her breath and saw Evan hurrying down the steps toward she and Roxanne.

"Roxanne, let go! Choking her to death isn't a very good way to let her know you're happy she's back, now get off!" Evan said, smiling as he leaned over Alex and gently untangled his little sister's hands from Alex's hair.

"Aly!" Roxanne yelled again, clawing at the air in an attempt to hug Alex again as Evan lifted her up and away from her.

"Sorry…I never should have told her you were coming." Evan said, grinning at Alex, "She's been bouncing off the walls all morning waiting to see you."

Alex smiled back at him, "No, it's alright. I'm happy to see her too! Let her go!" This time she braced herself as Evan lowered the little girl to the ground and released her.

Roxy came hurtling back toward Alex; Alex grabbed her underneath the arms and picked her up, settling Roxanne on her hip. "Hey, baby!" She kissed the two-year old's forehead and received a tight hug around the neck in return.

"Miss you." Roxanne said, her words muffled since her face was mashed against Alex's cheek.

"Aw, I missed you too, hun. Have you been taking care of your big brother for me?" Alex asked, smiling warmly at the little girl.

"Yep. He miss you too." Roxanne replied, giving Alex a very slobbery kiss on the cheek.

Alex looked at Evan and knew what Roxanne said was true, he certainly looked happy to see her. She gave Evan a very small smile and then looked back at the little blonde she was holding on her hip, "Yea? I missed him too." Alex replied, "But I missed you more!"

Roxanne giggled happily and clapped her hands, "No, I miss _you_ more!"

Alex grinned at her, shaking her head, "Not possible."

Roxanne frowned, "Why?"

"Because I'm bigger!" Alex told her, making Roxanne giggle more.

Dean watched the way Alex reacted with the little girl, and smiled at them. Seeing her with a kid made her even hotter, if that was even possible. He never was very good with kids, just Sam, and that was only because he was his little brother. But Alex handled herself very well, and for a moment Dean pictured a future with her, with kids.

Alex saw Dean watching her, and smiled at him. She stooped down and set Roxanne on the ground, much to the little girl's dismay.

"Evan, this is my boyfriend, Dean, and his brother, Sam." Alex said, introducing the guys to one another.

Evan's smile faltered a bit when he heard the word _boyfriend_, and he shook each of the Winchesters' hands.

"And this is Roxy, Evan's little sister." Alex added when Roxanne looked upset over not being introduced too.

Sam smiled and knelt, "Nice to meet you, Roxy. I'm Sam." He said, offering his hand.

Roxy grinned, she was watching Evan and Dean shake hands and mimicked what her big brother did. She grasped Sam's hand and shook it up and down vigorously. "Sam!" She yelled, giggling.

Alex, Evan, Sam and Dean all laughed, making Roxy's grin even bigger and her handshake even more energetic.

"Alright, kid, why don't we bring our guests inside?" Evan said to Roxanne.

"Play!" Roxy stopped shaking Sam's hand and gripped it firmly, then she faced Dean and reached out her free hand toward him.

Dean shifted uncomfortably, then nodded at Roxy, "Don't worry, I'll be right behind you."

But she wouldn't move, she smiled up at him with big green eyes and giggled, "Play!" She repeated, still holding a hand out to Dean. Sam smiled at her, still kneeling next to her so she could hold his hand.

Alex cleared her throat and nudged Dean in the ribs with her elbow. Dean glanced sideways at her and saw Alex smile warmly at him. He sighed, then grinned at Roxy, "Oh, alright!" He leaned down and took Roxy's hand and she tugged the two brothers up the steps and through the doorway, both of them walking with their backs bent so she could hold their hands the entire way.

Evan had been watching them closely, smiling at Roxy's won't-take-no-for-an-answer attitude toward the two new strangers. He looked at Alex, "They seem nice." Evan told her, a bit awkwardly.

"They are." Alex met his eyes. She'd forgotten how attractive he was; his light brown hair glittered in the sunlight, and he looked very cute in his Hollister t-shirt and denim pants. The two of them stood still for a few seconds, then Alex closed the distance between them and wrapped an arm around his waist in a friendly hug.

"I really did miss you…" Evan said, his voice low.

Alex breathed in the familiar scent of his cologne and sighed, "I missed you too." She said kindly, and before she knew it Evan had both arms wrapped around her in a tight embrace.

Evan held on only briefly and then, much to Alex's relief, let her go.

"I'm sorry about Jason." Alex said, Evan's lips pursed and he nodded stiffly.

"You're here now, and we can find the thing that killed him and Rochelle, that's all that matters now." Evan replied, his voice shaking slightly. Alex wasn't sure if he was angry and eager for vengeance, or if he was close to tears, she guessed it was a little bit of both.

Alex heard Roxy laugh inside, and knew that Sam and Dean were probably feeling a bit awkward without her in with them, "Come on, let's go inside."

XXX

Dean and Sam were sitting on the floor in Evan's living room; Roxy had a little toy kitten, and Sam and Dean were each holding half-naked Barbie dolls. Sam was playing nicely with Roxy, apparently pretending his Barbie was going out later that night with Roxy's Ken doll, but Dean looked absolutely horrified when Alex and Evan walked in.

Alex burst out laughing at the look on his face; Dean dropped the doll and scrambled to his feet to come and stand with Evan and Alex.

"Dean." Roxy said angrily, making Alex laugh even harder.

Evan smirked at Dean, "I take it half-naked Barbies aren't your kind of thing, huh?"

Dean rolled his eyes, but smiled none-the-less, "Nah, that's Sam's hobby. I was more of a G.I. Joe kind of kid."

Evan grinned, and walked over to pick up Roxy. "My parents aren't home, they're in Europe for the next month, so I'm going to go drop her off at my grandparents'. You can stay here, I'll be back in a few minutes."

Alex, Sam, and Dean said goodbye to Roxy, she wouldn't go with Evan until they had. After Evan left, Alex walked casually down a large hallway to a four-season room with Sam and Dean close behind her.

Evan's Dad was a plastic surgeon, and his mom was one of the top pediatricians in the state – and their house showed it. Alex hardly batted an eye when they stepped into the sunroom but Dean and Sam were a bit more intimidated.

"Damn…" Dean mumbled. The room was huge, in the center was a large swimming pool and a hot tub tucked away in a corner, two African Grey parrots were roaming about in an aviary to their right, there were exotic looking potted plants scattered everywhere, and chairs and tables, complete with umbrellas.

"Why the hell would anyone _need_ all this?" Dean asked incredulously.

Alex glanced around the room and shrugged, "It is a bit ridiculous, isn't it? But they don't need it, it's just for show. It's like an unofficial competition between rich people; they all try to make themselves look better than everyone else."

She walked over to the aviary, smiling when the two parrots flew over to the door immidiatly when they saw her. "This is Holly and Bart…" Alex told Dean and Sam, offering her arm to the two birds and watching them step onto her, "They were Evan's birthday present when he turned twelve. Evan tried pawning them off on me as a third year anniversary present, but I wouldn't take them. They'd have missed their aviary too much."

Alex scratched one of the parrots on top of its head lovingly and then looked over at Dean and noticed something was wrong with him. She placed the birds on Sam's shoulders, pausing to laugh and watch him cringe away as the parrots nibbled on his long hair, then she walked over to Dean.

"What's up?" She asked quietly.

Dean frowned at her, "You and Evan."

"What about us?" Alex asked, she could tell he'd seen her and Evan's little hug outside the door. "Dean, I know this is a weird situation, but the only reason I'm here is because I think we've got a job to do, not because I wanted to see Evan. If I could be anywhere else in the world besides here, I would be…trust me."

Dean wouldn't look her in the eye, "There's a lot of history to the two of you. I feel like I can't compete with that."

Alex closed her eyes briefly, then opened them and reached a hand up to his face and turned it towards her own. "Exactly."

Dean's forehead creased slightly in confusion, and Alex explained, "There's a lot of _history_. Everything between Evan and I is in the past. You and I are what's happening _now_. You don't have to compete with him, and do you know why?" A small smile played across Alex's lips as she stuck a finger in Dean's belt loop and pulled his hips into hers.

"I can't think of a single reason." He told her with a smile.

Alex grinned, her lips brushed against his as she said quietly, meeting his eyes and holding his gaze, "Because _you're_ the one I love..." Alex told him honestly, then sealed her promise with a kiss.

XXX

Later that night, Alex was rummaging around in Evan's room, "Well we might as well have some fun while we're here!" she protested. She had managed to dig up a bikini that she'd left at Evan's while they'd still been dating and was trying to convince Dean and Sam to come swimming with her. "Evan's got tons of swim shorts, most of them he's never even worn, you can borrow his!"

Sam was easy to convince, and Alex chucked a pair of shorts in his face. "Go get changed, then! The bathroom is down the hall, second door on the right." She told him and he walked off, leaving Alex to persuade Dean.

"Please?!" Alex whined, holding out a brand new pair of unworn shorts that Evan probably got as a Christmas present or something.

Dean stood his ground, "No." He growled firmly, "We're here to do a job, not watch you show off in a bikini."

Alex smirked, "So you don't want to see me in the bikini?" She asked slyly.

Dean gave her a small laugh, "It's not a matter of what _I_ want."

"So what is it then?" Alex asked, casually slipping off her top and bra and putting on the bikini top.

Dean had to take a few deep breaths as he watched her take her clothes off and put the bikini on, and it took him a second or two to regain his posture. He closed Evan's bedroom door.

"It's bad enough that we're in his damn bedroom…Do you _have_ to add on to it by whipping your clothes off?"

Alex laughed, "Fine!" She grabbed her t-shirt and started putting it back on.

Dean smiled, "No! No, I didn't mean get dressed…just, do it in private, will you?"

"Why?" Alex asked, but almost slapped herself in the forehead for her own stupidity, "Oh, Evan…Right. Sorry!" She was so used to being able to do whatever she wanted in Evan's house, including changing without bothering to close the doors.

"Yea, Evan." Dean said glumly.

Alex frowned at him, then motioned him over to tie the back of her swimsuit, "I've been a real ass, haven't I?"

Dean pushed her hair over her shoulder and out of the way, sighing, "We both have."

"Well at least you're trying to be honest, but you haven't been anything but tolerant of me since we got here."

"Tolerant? How so?"

"I shouldn't even talk about the stuff that happened between Evan and I, and I have been…I shouldn't have let him hug me, I shouldn't be stripping when he could walk in at any moment." Alex said, listing everything off on her fingers. She turned around and looked at him, "I'm sorry, I'll stop acting so…_at home_ here."

"I understand it though, you dated him for years, so it's probably hard for you to stop acting so" He paused to thing of the right word, "perky…and I shouldn't be so touchy when you take a little trip down memory lane." Dean replied.

"Well, thank you for that." She smirked at him, "So how about that swim?"

Dean rolled his eyes dramatically, "For the last time, no!"

"Alright, then, suit yourself." Alex said with a sly smile. She opened the Evan's bedroom door and walked out into the hallway. She spotted Evan coming out of the bathroom in his swim suit and turned around and watched Dean as she said, "Hey, Evan!" She skipped over to Evan and linked arms with him.

Okay, so it was really mean of her to use jealousy in order to force Dean to do something he didn't want to do…But, who are we kidding? Dean? In just swim shorts? Keep up the good work, Alex!

The idea of Alex, in nothing but a few square inches of cloth, swimming with her ex was enough to make him want to dive in. Dean rubbed his forehead and looked at the ceiling in anguish, grabbed the shorts that Alex had tried to get him to take, and followed her dejectedly out of the bedroom.

Evan grinned at him knowingly as Dean walked past him toward the bathroom, "She's good at the whole jealousy thing, isn't she?"

Dean shook his head in a gloomy sort of way and nodded, "Definitly."

XXX

"So this is what you guys do for a living?" Evan asked incredulously, dodging the ball that came hurtling at his head.

Dean had been trying to purposely beam the guy in the head for the past half-hour…ever since Mr. Washboard Abs suggested they play water volleyball and had gotten Alex to play on his side. Alex kept on shooting him apologetic glances.

But the two sports fanatics were kicking Sam and Dean's butt, which was making Dean's pride ache even more than it already had.

"Yea." Alex replied, lunging for the volleyball and propelling herself far enough out of the water to spike it back over the net toward Sam. "I guess. Not really for a living though, none of us has ever been tipped for saving someone's life!"

Sam bumped the ball easily back, scoring a lucky point against Evan and Alex, and said, "Evan, do you know where Maleri lives?"

"Yea, I do. Alex, knock it off!" Alex grabbed the ball and chucked it at him, hitting him square in the back of the head, for letting Sam and Dean score a point.

Dean snorted, and Alex winked at him.

Evan sighed, "Alex why don't you go play on Dean's team? I'm sick of him trying to kill me with the volleyball, I don't need you doing it too." He said, smirking at them.

Alex tried her best to look innocent, "What in the world are you talking about?" She grinned and changed the subject, "Where's she live?"

"Over on East Washington. I think she lives alone, too. No one's ever seen her parents, hell, no one's ever even heard of her parents."

Alex climbed out of the pool and towel dried her hair before sitting down in one of the chairs, "We should go pay her a little visit."

Dean and Sam nodded in agreement; Evan looked confused, "I thought we'd made it pretty clear that she's a psycho killer…So why exactly should we go to the crazy person's house?"

"Because we're here to stop these murders, and somehow Maleri is connected to all of them. Therefore, we need to go and see her for ourselves." Dean replied, pulling himself up onto the edge of the pool and standing up to grab a towel.

Alex couldn't help but stare at him; he rubbed the towel over his hair a few times, leaving his hair messy and super cute, and not to mention he was soaking wet and every lean, wiry muscle in his upper body was in plain sight…Alex forced her mind back to the task at hand.

"What time is it? We should go see if she's home…" Alex said, leaning over and looking at Dean's watch on the table, "It's a little after eight."

"Let's go then. She's probably there, everyone in school hates her, so where else could she be?" Evan said, and he and Sam both followed Dean and Alex and got out of the water.

Alex bit her lip to keep herself from grinning, Dean and Evan stood next to each other directly in front of her, chatting about what kind of freakazoid Maleri might turn out to be, and she had a front row view of water-shined six packs and bulging biceps. Evan and Dean looked like they belonged in a surf magazine. She reluctantly looked away and tossed Sam a towel.

Even Sam! She'd never seen the kid with his shirt off, he was still a few inches shorter than Dean, and his long legs made him look a little awkward, but he made up for it in muscle. Every part of him was equally as well-defined as his big brother's or Evan's. _Some girl's gonna be _very_ happy with you some day, Sammy! _Alex thought to herself, smiling inwardly as she let her eyes drift back over to Dean.

"Alex?" Dean said, bringing her back from a very wild fantasy in which she and Dean were engaged in…well, you get the drift.

"Hm?" Alex mumbled, glancing up at him.

Dean raised an eyebrow and grinned at her, "We're going to go over and check out Maleri, are you coming? Or would you rather just wait here and, uh…daydream?"

She blushed, "Coming!"

XXX

"You two stay behind us." Evan said protectively, making Alex and Sam roll their eyes in exasperation.

"Just because I'm a girl," Alex started.

"And just because I'm fifteen," Sam added.

"Doesn't mean we're incapable of defending ourselves." Alex and Sam said together.

Dean and Evan ignored them and Evan knocked on Maleri's door. She lived in a shabby looking old house in a lower-class area of the neighborhood, the paint was peeling off of the door, a few of the shutters were hanging on only one hinge, there were no lights on inside which added to the overall dreary look.

And there definitely wasn't going to be a swimming pool in her living room…

There wasn't any answer to their knocking, and so Dean let Sam up the steps to pick the lock; they were inside within seconds.

"Hello?" Alex said loudly, she found a light switch and flicked it upward, flooding the living room with light.

"Evan." Dean said.

Evan turned around and faced him, "Yea?"

"You know how to use one of these?" Dean asked, shoving a pistol into Evan's hands.

Evan looked a little amazed and confused, "Um, well, no…"

"Well, here's the instruction manual in a nutshell," Alex said, stopping next to Dean and frowning at Evan, "Make sure we're out of the way, point it at the bad guy, and pull the trigger. You think you can handle that?" She asked him, her voice thick with sarcasm.

Alex didn't wait for an answer, she walked quietly through a doorway into the kitchen. Dean couldn't help but smirk at Evan, "She's good at making you feel like an idiot, isn't she?" He asked rhetorically, then followed Alex, enjoying the dirty look that Evan shot at him.

Sam stuck with Evan, the two of them headed up a flight of stairs, flicking lights on whenever they came across a switch.

"So what normally happens when after you guys break into the psycho's house?" Evan asked, a bit shaky with nerves.

"Well, usually someone gets their head ripped off, their throat slashed, or a knife to the heart…But that's getting off easy." Sam said mock-seriously, snorting back a laugh when Evan stopped dead in his tracks and stared incredulously at him.

XXX

Alex and Dean walked down a creaking flight of stairs into the basement, "This is the one part of our job that I always hate…" Alex said bitterly. "Basements creep me out, but the nasties always seem to hide down here."

Dean pointed his flashlight into the blackness below them, "I know what you mean…" He said, dusting a cobweb out of his face with a grimace.

They were almost to the bottom of the stairs when Evan's voice rang out urgently above them, "Alex! Dean!"

The two of them froze, staring at one another.

"Sam…" Alex gasped, then turned around and flew back up the stairs.

"Sam!" Dean yelled, taking the stairs two at a time to reach his little brother.

The two of them reached the top of the second set of stairs and heard a loud thud coming from a room at the end of the hallway. Alex was a few strides ahead of Dean, she saw Evan back out of the bedroom and skidded past him.

Alex saw Sam struggling to get up after, apparently, having been thrown into a small dresser and she quickly scanned the room for his attacker. She didn't have much time to think though; a teenage girl, about her age, came hurtling at Alex from the side and slammed into her hips and stomach, throwing her off balance and to the ground.

Alex twisted, bringing her knees into her chest and underneath her aggressor. She landed heavily on her back on the hardwood floor and pushed hard with her feet against the girl, tossing her aside and giving Alex enough time to jump back to her feet, unhurt.

As soon as Alex was clear, two individual gunshots rang out in unison as Sam and Dean shot. Each of their bullets flew true, hitting their target square in the chest.

"Sam, you okay?" Dean asked, rushing over and helping Sam up.

"Yea, I'm alright." Sam said back.

Alex and Dean watched him carefully for a second before Alex turned on Evan, "How about you? You hurt?" She asked, her tone of voice dangerously sweet.

Evan looked intimidated and said reluctantly, "Yes…"

"Oh, good!" Alex replied, her voice becoming even more icy, "Maybe next time you can get over yourself and act a little more like a man, eh? He could have been killed, thanks to you!" She told him nastily, motioning toward Sam.

Evan scowled, "Oh, I'm sorry, Alex! I've never _shot_ anyone before!" He yelled back at her.

"It's not that hard, Evan! Point and shoot, even someone as dim-witted as you can figure that out!"

"That's not what I meant!"

"Would you two shut up?" Dean said, kneeling next to the body.

Evan shot Alex one more dirty look then said moodily, "It's Maleri."

Alex looked down at the girl that they'd killed, her light brown hair was dull and unhealthy looking, her face gaunt and pale, and she was desperately thin.

"She looks like she should have been dead already…" She said, walking over and checking the girl's non-existent pulse, just for closure.

"The question is; did we just kill an innocent person, or something supernatural?" Dean asked.

"Supernatural." Alex and Sam said.

"She picked me up and threw me like I weighed nothing." Sam told them, "And with the way she looks, I doubt she could have done that without something paranormal backing her up."

Alex agreed, shaking her head sadly, "So what do you think?"

"I'm not sure…Possession maybe?" Sam said thoughtfully.

"It would certainly explain the super strength, not to mention the way she looks. Who knows how long she's been possessed." Alex replied.

"And why she died so easily; kill the host and get rid of the possessor, at least temporarily anyway." Dean added.

"What's this?" Sam asked, pointing to a small prescription bottle on a nightstand.

Dean picked it up and read the label, "Chlorpromazine?"

That caught Alex's attention, "Let me see that."

Dean handed the bottle to her and she read the label for herself to see if she'd heard correctly. She raised an eyebrow, "Wow."

"What?" Sam asked.

"Chlorpromazine is a type of tranquilizer…It's usually used on Alzheimer's patients to help control anxiety, violence, paranoia, uncooperativeness, et cetera. Normally the major tranquilizers are avoided because over a prolonged period of time they can cause some serious and sometimes irreversible side effects. The prescription is filled out to Maleri Desato, and the date says it was filled about a two weeks ago…" Alex looked up at them, "This is some potent stuff. Why would Maleri be taking it?"

"And you know all of that how?" Dean asked curiously.

"I worked in a nursing home for a few years. I had to give this stuff to one of our patients one time, he was going berserk on one of the visitors." Alex told him.

"I've got a better question," Sam said, "Why would she have been taking this if she were being possessed?"

The three of them thought on that for a second before Alex sighed, "Well, we can think about this once we get back to Evan's. I don't know about you, but I don't really want to be found kneeling next to a dead girl…" She straightened, "At least this gives us a bit of a lead."

"Yea, I'd rule out spirits since they normally stick to one pattern, possession usually isn't a part of their routine." Dean agreed, standing next to her.

"So we're looking for some kind of being or a demon, something that perhaps can't possess it's victims without them being weakened first, and is either after couples or males." Sam said. "Not a lot to go on, but hopefully it'll be enough."

Sam, Alex, and Dean strode past Evan, who was still busy staring in shock at Maleri's body, and walked to the stairs. Alex turned around and looked back at the bedroom, Evan was still inside, "Evan, you coming or what?"

Alex, Dean, and Sam never saw Evan's eyes flash green, and they didn't see him sneak the bottle of Chlorpromazine into his pocket, all they saw was Evan coming out of the bedroom and walking toward them looking completely normal, "Yea, coming!"

XXX

"Jackpot!" Alex said loudly in an effort to make herself heard over the music that was blaring from the surround sound speakers in the sunroom. She was laying on her stomach next to the pool on a beach towel with the Evan's laptop in front of her.

"Damn…" Sam muttered.

"That's right! Top that, Sammy!" Alex giggled. The two of them had had a little competition going on to see who could find the identity of the thing they were hunting first. Of course, after ten minutes of frenzied typing on their keyboards, it escalated to a _big_ competition.

"Oh, shut up and tell me what you found." Sam told her sourly.

Alex smirked, "Where did Dean and Evan disappear to?"

"Not sure."

She shrugged, then told him the website address so Sam could check it out for himself as she read off important bits of information. "It's a type of demon, not a very powerful one though, called a" Alex squinted her eyes to make sure she was pronouncing the name correctly, "Paltuma? Whatever…Anyway! Sounds like they've got a very trivial reason for killing; love."

"You call that trivial?" Sam said curiously, "Boy, that gives Dean a good outlook…" He added sarcastically.

Alex rolled her eyes at him, "You know what I mean." She looked back at her screen, "So they try and find someone who's _taken_, have a little one night stand, and break up the couple."

"Well, that's a new one…Although it makes sense! They get to have a bit of fun and cause some misery all at the same time." Sam said bitterly.

Alex understood his tone of voice, "But then when their stupid plan doesn't work, they murder their victim out of spite. Good news is they're really weak; when they're not possessing someone they're one step above powerless, and even when they do possess a person, their host has to be either weak minded and easily controlled, or tranquilized. That explains the Chlorpromazine…"

Sam took over and continued, "But they _can_ possess and control even someone with a strong will, only for a short period of time though. And when they are inside their host, they've got extreme physical strength."

"So even you, me, and Dean could be possessed, although it'd only be able to keep us under control for thirty minutes or so."

"They can be killed with, this is a new one, Alexandrite, but only when they're possessing someone…which means we'd have to kill another innocent person."

"Unless," Alex said, scrolling down the web page, "we get it near water. Apparently, it's another one of their weaknesses...Oh, and it says here that they're a lot like spirits because salt will also repel them."

"But won't kill them…So we can either drown it or stab it with a rock." Sam said with slight humor, rubbing his forehead.

"I'm not sure where we can find large enough pieces of Alexandrite though. We could always find rings with the June birthstone in them and just beat the crap out of it." Alex said.

"Ha ha, very funny. No…We'll have to find the Alexandrite somewhere, maybe a local jeweler will have some we can buy."

Alex closed Evan's laptop and set it on a table, "I'm going to go find Dean and tell him. We can try and track this thing down in the morning. 'Nite!" She said to Sam.

"G'night." Sam replied, watching Alex walk out of the sunroom.

XXX

"Dean?" Alex said quietly as she walked into the spare bedroom that she and Dean were to be staying in. She flicked the light on and saw Dean laying on his back in bed, he didn't move when she said his name.

"Hey, wake up!" Alex said, bouncing on the bed next to him.

He didn't move.

Alex frowned, "Dean?" She leaned over him, shaking his shoulder slightly but there was still no response.

"Well, fine then! I'm not going to -" She stopped mid-sentence and her jaw dropped, she noticed a large bruise developing across the right side of his face.

"Dean!" Alex leaned close to his face and grabbed his wrist, his breathing and pulse were normal. She let go of his wrist and saw a small puncture wound on his arm.

"Oh, God…" _You were injected with Chlorpromazine…_Alex leapt to her feet and raced out the door to get Sam, only to run into Evan.

Evan smiled smugly at her, "What's wrong, Al?"

Alex was about to tell him that Dean needed help when she saw his eyes flash green, "It's you…You possessed Evan while we were at Maleri's house…" She said, noticing the needle syringe in his right hand.

"Gee, aren't you a little rocket scientist." Evan replied, he walked toward her slowly.

Alex circled away from him, "You evil son of a bitch…Why us?"

"Believe it or not, but I don't only go after men with girlfriends, that's just one of my favorite pastimes. If I have an opportunity to do something much better, I will."

"Yea, like what?" Alex growled at him.

He merely grinned, "I've got to say, I really am glad that you were stupid enough to come after me. I had no idea the Winchester boys were after me, if I had, I would have made more of an effort to get you to come after me sooner."

"What do you mean?" Alex said, curious but horrified.

"Oh, come on, you're smarter than that, aren't you?" He asked, "No? Alright then, I plan on killing you in a few minutes anyway, so what's it matter if I tell you? John Winchester and his sons are infamous to things like me, did you know that?"

"Things like you?" She was trying to keep him distracted, she'd wormed her way past him and was slowly backing down the hallway toward the poolroom.

"Demons, spirits, creatures…John's killed countless paranormal beings, and Sam and Dean are starting to develop their own bad reputation too." He said angrily, "I can't even begin to explain to you how happy I am to be the one who gets to kill you all."

Alex's lips curled in a small snarl, "If you all want them dead so badly why aren't they gone yet? Doesn't say much for your abilities…"

He scowled at her, "They will be gone, in about another five minutes. Along with you."

He lunged for her and Alex turned and tore down the hallway. She only made it a few feet before she felt something stab into the small of her back, the pain faded almost instantly and she stopped dead in her tracks. Alex tried desperately to keep running, but she found that she couldn't move a single part of her own body. She could still see, but when she tried to look to the left or right, her eyes wouldn't cooperate.

Everything she said and did were being controlled by the Paltuma.

XXX

At first Alex almost believed she was going to be able to overpower the demon inside her, for a few moments the two of them struggled against the other's will. But Alex soon realized that her efforts were futile; despite the fact that she couldn't make her own eyes move, she could see everything clearly, but then after attempting to fight off the demon with her mind the edges of her vision became blurry.

_Sam! Help!_ Alex screamed inside, swearing she could here her voice almost echoing inside her head.

It was a matter of minutes before she felt groggy and tired, she watched through her own eyes defenselessly as the demon forced her to walk over to Evan, who was face down on the floor, and lean down to grab the syringe of Chlorpromazine from his hand.

XXX

Sam was on his way upstairs when he heard Alex say, "What'd you say we go finish Dean off first?"

"What the hell…" He muttered, rounding a corner and seeing her kneeling next to Evan's limp form crumpled on the ground.

Sam watched Alex take a syringe out of Evan's hand. Alex reached down and grabbed Evan's hands, pulling him into the closest room, which happened to be the bathroom. She closed the door once she had him inside.

Alex walked a few paces down the hallway; Sam raised an eyebrow when Alex paused mid-step.

"Damn…" She mumbled, shaking her head slightly and then continuing, though it looked like she was having a hard time walking, as if something were holding her back.

Sam took a chance, "Hey, Alex!"

XXX

"What'd you say we go finish Dean off first?"

The demon used her own voice to say it, and hearing that made adrenaline rush through Alex's veins. The fuzzy film around the edges of her sight became somewhat clearer. Alex had felt like she was beginning to fall into a deep sleep seconds before, but the demon's plan to kill Dean had boomed in her mind.

_No…No!_ Alex's mind yelled out desperately.

She forced her mind to cooperate and fight against the groggy feeling, and the next thing she knew she could see the doorway to the spare bedroom in front of her. Alex could feel a small, weak connection to her legs and grabbed onto it; forcing the demon to slow down and stop temporarily as she regained slight control of her legs.

"Damn…" The demon said, assaulting her mind with what felt like knives plunging into her head.

Alex reluctantly fell back and felt that deep sleep try and take over again.

"Hey, Alex!"

Alex heard Sam call her, she knew he wasn't stupid enough to assume everything was fine after seeing Evan laying on the floor, and an idea formed in her head. She made every effort to make sure the demon couldn't read what she was thinking.

And she succeeded. The Paltuma had no clue.

XXX

Alex's idea was the same as Sam's.

"I found some more information on the Paltuma, want to come take a look?" He asked, sounding completely convincing.

Alex's eyes flashed angrily, but Sam pretended as if he didn't notice.

"Fine." She said irritably.

"I left my laptop downstairs, come on." Sam replied.

He stepped aside and let her go first, he walked carefully behind her, watching her every move.

When they got downstairs he sat next to his laptop, which he'd plugged in in the sun room next to the pool, and opened it up. He, Dean, and Alex had their guns lying out after a cleaning, and Alex noticed them. Sam knew that the demon inside her was going to be treading carefully with all the weaponry around.

Alex sat in a chair across from him and watched him intently, her eyes shifting uncomfortably toward the water every few seconds.

Sam proceeded to read off some random information about a completely different demon from the Paltuma. From the happy look on Alex's face, Sam could tell that the demon was buying it and was growing more confident in itself every second. It actually believed that Sam and Alex knew nothing about it.

XXX

Upstairs, Evan was coming around, his head throbbed painfully as he struggled to his feet. He remembered everything that had happened and fought of a wave of nausea as he opened the bathroom door and stumbled out.

Evan staggered into the bedroom where Dean was laying unconscious on the bed, he quickly rushed over and checked his pulse.

"Sorry, Dean…I wasn't exactly myself when I did this to you…" Evan muttered, then turned around and tottered uneasily out of the bedroom and down the stairs.

XXX

Alex could see Sam clearly now, and the feeling of connection to the rest of her body was a little stronger now. She held back, refusing to take hold of that connection until she was sure she could control her own body long enough to get it into the pool.

Seconds later, Evan came through the door, looking shaken but pissed.

"Sam! It's in her!" He said loudly.

_Bonehead…as if he didn't know. But oh well, we're going swimming anyway!_ Alex thought evilly, intending for the demon to hear her thoughts.

And here her it did, it panicked and tried to run, but Alex's grip on her body's nerves was firm and she used every ounce of mental strength she could muster to launch herself at the pool.

She felt the warm water envelop her, and the demon fought madly against her in order to reach the surface. Alex kept a hold on herself and sank a few feet further beneath the water's surface.

Green light flashed in front of her eyes and blinded Alex, her body felt like it was on fire as the demon released its control over her. As it left her body and was destroyed, the pain that it left behind in Alex was so intense that her body reacted instinctively and screamed.

_Dean!_

Water poured into her lungs, she coughed and tried to claw her way to the edge of the pool, but only inhaled more of the crystal clear water.

The last thing Alex remembered was a large figure coming toward her, the water sparkling gently and deadly quiet the only thing she could hear. Then her world went black.


	7. Chapter 6

_Author's Note: I want to thank those of you who have been reading since Chapter One, and also I would like to apologize! I know it takes _forever_ for me to update because I've got a busy lifestyle. But I try really hard to make the story worth the wait, and I hope that when you all read it, you believe it really is worth the time spent waiting! _

_I have big plans though, next couple of chapters will be normal (or as normal as the Winchester's lives can be, anyway!) and then I've got a _huge _surprise in store for you – probably one you won't like much. Then, after that surprise, we'll get back to the Angels (and once you read this chapter you'll know what I mean by Angels!). And the only reason I've told you that is to hopefully keep you coming back for more! _

_Now, back to the story!_

XXX

"Here!" Sam shouted after scrambling up onto the edge of the pool, he reached out to Evan, slid a hand underneath each of Alex's arms and heaved her upper body out of the water as Evan gently lifted her lower half up to Sam.

"Alex?!" Sam said urgently, brushing her wet brown hair out of her face. He pressed two fingers to her neck and put his ear next to her mouth, watching her chest closely for movement. "Her pulse is weak, and she's not breathing!"

Evan pulled himself easily out of the pool and knelt next to Alex, he placed one hand on her forehead and the other underneath her chin and gently tipped her head back. "Help me out here, Sam." He said, nodding his head toward Alex's chest.

Sam knew what to do, he placed both hands, one on top of the other, just above the bottom of Alex's rib cage and locked his elbows.

Evan bent and gently breathed into Alex's mouth, then looked at Sam, "Go! One, two, three, four, five." He counted with each of Sam's chest compressions.

"Breath!" Sam ordered Evan.

Three more sets and Alex coughed roughly, releasing the water inside her lungs. Evan checked her pulse and breathing again.

"She's still not breathing…"

Four more sets…and Evan checked her vitals again. "Nothing! Keep going!"

Sam continued chest compressions, both he and Evan pleaded quietly "Come on, Alex...please."

Two more sets and two minutes passed since she'd been pulled from the pool when Evan said loudly, "Wait!"

Alex's pulse beat unevenly against Evan's fingers and he felt gentle breath against his cheek as he saw her chest rise slowly.

XXX

Evan hung up the phone after having dialed 911, and he and Sam jogged back down the hallway toward where they'd left Alex. Sam paused next to a large antique clock, then casually reached out and pulled it to the ground, shattering glass and wood splinters everywhere.

Evan whipped around and stared, "What the hell are you doing?!" He asked incredulously as Sam easily knocked a display of porcelain figurines off of the wall.

"Making things looks more believable." Sam told him.

"What do you mean?"

"We'll have to tell the cops something, so we might as well blame it on someone else. So listen up, you and I were playing video games when we heard something in the hallway smash. We ran out and saw Alex fighting with some guy, the front door was open -" Sam paused and walked over to the front door and opened it slightly. "The guy saw us and grabbed Alex, we tried to get her away from him and he backed into the pool room, when we got to close he knocked her out and threw her in the pool. We let him go and jumped in the pool to save Alex. We never saw what he looked like because he was wearing a ski mask…Oh, and we'll play stupid and act like Dean just got hit over the head with something too. Got it?" Sam asked, looking Evan in the eye seriously.

Evan took a deep breath, "Yea…I got it."

"Good." Sam replied.

"Look, the hospital is only a few miles from here, they'll be here in a few minutes." Evan said, rushing back into the pool room. "You should go check on Dean."

Sam nodded, his nerves threatening to overwhelm him, and practically flew up the stairs.

"Dean!" Sam yelled, hurrying to his brother's side.

Dean's breathing was labored, and his pulse was hardly there.

XXX

Ten minutes later, Evan and Sam trailed after Alex's and Dean's stretchers, trying to get the doctors surrounding them to explain what was going on.

They watched as doctors and nurses hooked both Alex and Dean up to a number of different machines before a young woman ushered them out of the room.

Sam stared in at Alex and Dean through the window, they couldn't hear what was going on, but Sam's eyes widened and his breath came in ragged gasps as he watched the computer screens showing their vitals.

Both Dean and Alex were flat-lining.

XXX

Dean groaned, slowly coming back from what felt like a really bad night's sleep. He rubbed a hand over his face without opening his eyes, then gradually noticed the noise that filled the room around him.

There were people yelling, a man's voice commanding, "Clear!" and a quiet, dull thud following. Multiple voices darted around the area, each of them sounding hurried, on-edge and worried. Dean shook his head to try and get rid of the ringing in his ears, but the ringing grew steadily louder and his stomach lurched uneasily when he realized what the very distinct, high-pitched, and drawn out beep was.

Dean sat straight up and opened his eyes wide; four people surrounded him. "What's going on?" He asked loudly.

No one responded.

A doctor on his right yelled, "Clear!" once more.

Dean jumped when he saw the paddles come toward him, but that wasn't nearly as bad as when the doctor's hands and paddles plunged straight through Dean's chest.

He quickly spun his upper body to look down and saw himself lying in a hospital bed; Dean yelled out in shock and swiftly scrambled out of the bed. He backed away from the scene slowly, watching in shock as the doctor again touched the defibrillators to his body's chest.

"I was hoping you'd be able to hold on..." Alex's voice said quietly behind him.

The same thing had happened to Alex minutes before; she woke up and found herself having a not-so-fun out-of-body experience. At first she tried to get the doctors to talk to her, but soon realized that her efforts were futile and gave up. Then she saw Dean and her heart felt like it had jumped into her throat – she could deal with her own death, but Dean? That was something she couldn't bear to think about…

Dean spun around and faced her, "Alex?!"

Alex smiled grimly at him, "Yea…me." She paused, frowning at him and looking concerned, "You're stubborn in every other aspect of your life, why couldn't you be stubborn about dying too?"

Dean stared at her, trying to comprehend everything, then dashed over to a nurse, trying to get her attention.

"Don't bother, they can't hear us." Alex told him gently, "I already tried."

"What the hell happened?" Dean asked, turning around and facing her again.

"You'll remember, it took me a couple minutes to remember everything too." Alex's voice shook and her face was pale.

Dean knew what she was thinking, and wrapped an arm around her back and pulled her in and Alex buried her face in his shirt. "We're not dead…" He muttered into her hair as he watched more doctors and nurses try and bring Alex back.

"What else could it be?" Alex said uneasily, her voice muffled against the fabric of his shirt.

He didn't know what to say, there was no bright side to their current situation that would comfort Alex, so he simply hugged her tighter.

Dean's heart ached when he saw Sam standing outside the window; Sam was staring into the room, the pre-teen looked close to tears, his mouth slightly open in horror.

Dean wasn't paying attention to anything around him as he focused on Sam's face until Alex pulled away from him and tugged on his arm. He looked down at her and saw her watching the hospital bed behind him, with his body in it, avidly.

"Look!" Alex said unbelievingly.

A nurse standing over Dean's bed said "We got him." And Dean glanced over; his screen showed a steady heartbeat.

Alex stared at him, distress etched all over her face, "So why are you still here then?" She asked anxiously.

Dean didn't respond, and Alex didn't expect him to, because both of them heard a change in Alex's heart beat too. The sound of flat-lining was exchanged for a slow but secure repeating beep.

"Nevermind. Why am I still here?" She said, confused.

"I don't know…but we'll figure it out."

XXX

Alex paced across the hospital room, glancing at both her and Dean's motionless bodies ever few seconds, and watching Sam the rest of the time.

Evan was sprawled out on one of the two couches in the room, he'd done his best to comfort Sam, but nothing that he said changed Sam's outlook.

Dean was standing behind his little brother with one hand on Sam's shoulder, as if he was trying to reach out to him, but it wasn't working.

Doctors would come in every half hour or so to double check Alex's and Dean's vitals and see if there were any signs of consciousness, and each time they'd merely shake their heads dejectedly.

Alex stopped and reflected on the situation; everything seemed so hopeless…their bodies just lying there, Evan's gloomy sighs every two seconds, doctors and nurses piling in all the time and talking about how Alex and Dean seemed to be simply sleeping and should wake up at any moment, and Sam hiding his face in his hands…

"I can't take this." She blurted out miserably to Dean, "I'm going to the bathroom."

Dean let his hand drop away from Sam's shoulder, he ran a hand over his forehead in an attempt to brush away the downcast emotions running through his head.

"We're spirits, do we even _have_ to use the bathroom?" Dean asked with thoughtful humor.

"Oh, shut it…" Alex mumbled, grinning slightly at him, "I'll be back."

XXX

Alex walked down the hallway, at first trying to avoid running into the multiple people rushing about, but when one nurse jogged straight through her she decided it wasn't worth the effort.

She wandered into the cafeteria, down another hallway and into the pediatrics, and through radiology before she finally felt like she could handle going back to her hospital room.

Her mind was working overtime, trying to think of a way to, essentially, "bring herself back to life", when she bumped into someone.

"Sorry…" Alex muttered distractedly, then she realized what had happened. Alex quickly back-peddled away from the person she'd run into in order to see who they were, and the first thing she saw were the blazing green eyes…

A middle-aged man with blonde hair, about six foot, wearing a blue intern's outfit, stood in front of her.

"Shouldn't you be dead?" Alex growled bitterly, gritting her teeth and glaring at the possessed man in front of her.

"Aw, now that wasn't very nice, was it? Although, I suppose you don't have much reason to be nice to me, do you? I am keeping you and your boyfriend comatose, after all…"

Alex scowled, but didn't skip a beat, "Well, at least now I know it'll be easy for us to recover. We kicked your ass once, we can do it again."

"Not quite." His smirk widened, "Now, let's think about this, hm? You're a spirit, I'm a demon, you're weak and defenseless and I'm, well, not!" The demon lifted a hand and barely twitched a finger, but it was enough to send Alex flying back down the empty hall.

Alex slid across the floor a few feet before coming to a stop, she quickly regained her footing and faced the demon. "A bit useless, don't you think? Like you said, I'm a spirit, how the hell do you expect to -"

She didn't have time to finish her sentence before something painful pierced her thigh. Alex looked down and saw something buried in her leg, she swiftly pulled it out and tossed it across the floor away from her. The palm of her hand was burned where she'd touched the knife.

"That's pure iron, comes in handy when you've got a pesky little ghost problem." The demon told her, chuckling to himself.

"Damn." Alex mumbled, she backed up slowly away from the demon, and he swiftly caught up with her. "You've got weaknesses too, smartass. You might want to keep that in mind."

"Thanks for the warning." He was only a few inches from Alex's face when he lifted his hand again.

Alex reacted instinctively; she grabbed his wrist with both hands, easily twisted her body so her back was against his stomach, and then bent over, using her upper body to pull him over her.

The demon landed flat on its back in the trap it had laid for Alex seconds before without Alex realizing it, and now the demon's plan backfired and he lay on his back, a ring of salt encircling him.

Alex couldn't help it, "Ha! Who's weak and defenseless now? That's pure talent, it comes in handy when you're kicking a demon's ass."

Alex side-stepped around the possessed man and jogged down the hallway back to her and Dean's hospital room with her mind racing, her nerves snapping, and her worry growing, despite the small triumph over the demon.

XXX

It didn't take long for the adrenaline to wear off and for Alex to realize that something wasn't right. Her thigh throbbed painfully with every step, sending waves of pain up her leg and into her stomach and chest; she was two floors away from Dean and Sam when it finally gave out underneath her. Alex threw out both hands to break her fall, not that it hurt much anyway considering technically she wasn't alive to feel the fall anyway…

"Damn…" Alex muttered to herself, a group of three nurses came jogging up to her and Alex had the unpleasant feeling of having one of the young interns walk straight through her upper body. Alex pulled herself over to the wall and leaned up against it, one hand pressed firmly over the gash on her thigh. _I'm not even alive…how the hell did he manage to hurt me this bad?_ Alex thought, angry at the fact that she had allowed herself even one moment of weakness when the demon might be after Sam and Dean right that second.

"Need some help?" A deep, gentle voice asked from Alex's right.

Alex's turned her head so quickly that if she had been alive she probably would have broken her own neck. She had to tip her head upward to look at him, and instinctively cringed away from his figure. In response to her fear, the man backed off slightly, holding both hands up as a gesture to show that he didn't want to hurt her.

He was slightly shorter than Dean with a large but muscular build, well-toned chest and arm muscles showed slightly underneath his white polo and looked to be around twenty four years old. Alex's own muscled relaxed and let loose most of the tension that had leapt into them after this stranger had snuck up on her; she couldn't explain it, but somehow she didn't feel threatened by him.

"Who are you?" Alex asked, watching his face curiously. He was reasonably attractive, but not "pretty boy" attractive like Dean or Evan. Alex saw that he had a small smile on his face; his dark, emerald green eyes revealed that he was worried.

"Fair enough." He knelt down next to her and offered a hand, "My name's Aaron." He grinned widely, what he was about to say was the complete truth, and he knew that Alex's reaction to his next sentence would be fun to watch, he told her cheerfully, "I'm your guardian angel."

XXX

Alex snorted back a laugh at the idiotic idea of guardian angels, wincing as another wave of pain shot through her thigh, but ignoring it as she tried, and failed miserably, to keep a straight face, "Excuse me? I mean, you're kidding me right?"

Aaron raised his eyebrows and rolled his eyes at her, "Well, I can't say I wasn't expecting that…But no, I'm dead serious."

"Uh huh, right. More likely you're just some dead guy with a really lame sense of humor. How many newly demised ghosts have you conned into believing that story?" Alex asked, smirking at him.

"Oh come on! It's not that far fetched, is it? Alright, fine, we can settle this easily; I've been your guardian angel since the day you were born, before then, actually. Ask me anything about your life, anything at all, and I'll be able to answer it." Aaron said, glancing down at the gash on her thigh anxiously.

Alex wasn't sure what it was about him, but she trusted him, he had a certain tone to his voice…something that gave him an infectiously happy personality. And he _felt_ familiar, as if she'd known him very well long ago and simply couldn't remember his name. She decided to humor him, "Okay then, my parents gave me a pearl bracelet for my tenth birthday and I lost it somewhere, so where'd I lose it?"

"Easy. You went on a field trip to the zoo and accidentally dropped it into the Bear's Den. Oh, and you never told anyone about it except for Megan Donnely, who was your best friend up until ninth grade when she started flirting with the guy you liked." Aaron sighed and added, "I never understood why Boss assigns _male_ guardians to girl charges. I've got to tell you, that whole situation with Megan and, what was his name…Devon?" Aaron simply closed his eyes and shook his head. Alex could see a sly grin playing across his lips.

"Oh, shut up." Alex said good naturedly, "Just because you know about some stupid bracelet and a fight I had in the ninth grade doesn't mean you're my -"

Aaron couldn't stand it anymore, he placed a hand over the wound on her leg and seconds later held a small piece of iron in his hand.

Alex looked at him with slightly widened eyes and watched him chuck the fragment across the hall. "Okay, that was impressive, so fine, maybe you're a good guy…but I don't get it though, I'm not even corporeal, how the hell did he manage to do that?"

"You're not a typical spirit, the demon's keeping you and Dean here. I'm sure he's planning on keeping you and Dean here until he can kill you; see, he can make sure that you don't wake up, but he can't kill your physical bodies unless he were to possess someone and use them to murder you." Aaron told her solemnly.

"So why not just do that?"

"Too easy. You pissed him off when you tried to drown him. Killing you on his terms will be much more enjoyable, for him anyway."

Alex didn't respond, she tried to fathom the idea that this guy could actually be her angel, the fact that the demon was in a good position to kill she, Dean, and probably Sam too, was something she didn't want to think about, but had to. If she'd been in her body, she'd have had one killer headache.

Aaron situated himself so he was leaning against the wall just like Alex, he rested his head against the wood. "This entire situation is my fault." He said miserably, "You and Dean wouldn't be here if it weren't for me."

Alex glanced over at him and saw that he'd closed his eyes, his forehead wrinkled in anger and frustration. "What do you mean?"

Aaron opened his eyes and looked at her, "Long story short; my job is to make sure that you stay safe and reasonably happy. I rely somewhat on the people around you to help me out sometimes, and you rely on them completely because you don't, or shouldn't, even know I exist. Therefore, I'm partly responsible for the people you love and rely on. Anyway, with John going off on his own I was worried about him and convinced the Winchester's guardian angel to -"

"Sam and Dean have a guardian angel too?" Alex interrupted.

Aaron smiled, "Almost all hunters do. Boss is working on getting another angel assigned specifically for Dean though…"

Alex shook her head, smiling knowingly, and let Aaron continue with the explanation.

"So I was worried about John, and David, the Winchester's angel, was too. See, we get these vibes when something is wrong with one of our charges. I have it easy, you're my only charge, so I don't get these bad feelings all the time, although you should know that I've been getting more and more ever since you joined up with the Winchesters." Aaron told her, shaking a finger at her mockingly. "But I was getting one for John. Dave and I went to check on him, we were only gone for a few days, but when we got back you and Dean were comatose and the demon was hot on your heels. The demon must have interfered with our senses, made us think something was up with John to draw us off. Demons and Angels normally try to avoid one another, we can really cause each other some serious damage." Aaron frowned, "But the one after you is a low-level demon, and once Dave and I get our hands on him…well, let's just say I actually kind of feel sorry for him."

"So John was alright?" Alex asked nervously.

"Yea, perfectly fine. It was you and Dean we should have been worrying about." Aaron replied. "Dave's keeping an eye on Sam and Dean, but you and I should get up there before the demon worms his way out of that trap. Come on." Aaron got to his feet and reached down to pull Alex to her's.

XXX

Aaron and Alex jogged into the hospital room to find Dean and another man, whom Alex assumed to be David after seeing that he wasn't really attempting to hurt Dean, just hold him still; the two of them were in a funny looking death grip on the floor. Poor Dean was definitely being humbled…

David was probably in his late twenties, early thirties judging from the light gray hairs that were showing here and there in the dark black hair, and was at least four inches taller than Dean. He didn't look like much, but apparently he was a hell of a lot stronger than he looked because he had Dean down on his stomach, both of Dean's hands were wrapped behind his back and being held in place by David. David had one knee in the center of Dean's back, though he appeared to be keeping most of his weight off of Dean and on his other leg.

David looked up at Aaron and Alex and smiled hesitantly, rolling his eyes at the same time. "About time you got here, I told you Dean would go insane when I showed up. What took so long?"

"Sorry, Dave. I had to convince her too, remember?" Aaron said.

"Alex! Help me out here, will you?!" Dean yelled, flailing his shoulders in an attempt to shake Dave off the top of himself.

"No thanks, I'd rather stay on God's good side." Alex said, keeping a straight face as she jogged over to he and Dave, poor Dean looked pissed and embarrassed at being out-muscled by this new guy.

"What -" Dean started, but Dave let him go just then.

Dean got to his feet swiftly and whipped around to face Dave, but Alex side-stepped in front of him. "Dean, chill out! Did you even listen to what he has to say before attacking him?"

"How do you know I attacked him? He's the one who snuck up on me!" Dean said indignantly, sounding like a third grader who'd just been accused of pushing a classmate on the playground.

Alex crossed her arms over her chest, "Uh, huh. So you were caught off-guard and decided to attack him before he attacked you, right?"

"Right!" Dean told her, as if she'd just proved that he was right.

"Bone head…" Alex muttered, then offered a hand to David.

David grasped it and shook hands with her; Alex always liked shaking hands with someone she was meeting for the first time, it told a lot about the person. Dave gripped her hand firmly and easily and led hers in the shake, showing that he was a take charge kind of person. Alex watched his face, he looked her straight in the eye and smiled warmly, "That's exactly what I called him. I'm Dave."

"I figured." Alex replied, smiling back at him kindly; she liked him instantly.

"Someone want to explain to me what the hell is going on here?" Dean asked, throwing his hands in the air.

Alex giggled, looped an arm through his and leaned her head on his shoulder. "Aw, poor Dean…his guardian angel kicked his ass."

Dean pulled away from her slightly, his nose wrinkled and one eyebrow arched. "Angel?" He glanced back at Dave, "Him?" He looked at Aaron, "Who's he?" Then looked back down at Alex, who was grinning at him.

"Yes. Yes. _My_ Guardian Angel, Aaron." Alex answered without using complete sentences.

Dean was scowling at both Aaron and Dave, "I don't buy it."

"You don't have to. All you have to do is stay out of our way while we work on getting the two of you back inside your own bodies." Dave replied.

Dean opened his mouth, no doubt to say some nasty comeback, but Alex cut him off with a look that said, _I'll explain this later, just shut up for now_. "How exactly do you plan on doing that?"

"We're not entirely sure yet. We haven't really had a chance to talk about it. Dave and I only just got back a little bit ago, we wanted to make sure you two were safe first." Aaron replied, plopping down on the couch.

Alex finally noticed that Evan and Sam were gone, "Where'd Sam and Evan go?"

"Out to eat." Dean replied, not taking his eyes off of Aaron and Dave.

"Are they safe?" Alex asked the angels.

"So far. I'm not getting any bad readings from Sam." Dave told her reassuringly.

"Back to the demon." Aaron said, almost to himself, he was sitting low on the couch, his arms sprawled over the top of the couch to either side of his body and his head leaning against the back of couch. "I say we kill it, but the only problem with that is we don't know what kind of hold it has on Dean and Alex. Two things could happen: Number one, Alex and Dean wake up as soon as the demon dies. Number two, they're stuck here forever."

"I think I'm going to have to veto that plan!" Alex told him with a humorless laugh.

"Or we can trap it, torture it for a little bit, get it to release its hold on the two of you, and then kill it." Dave tossed in his idea.

"And risk it being able to fight back, not all traps are impenetrable." Dean said.

Alex, Aaron, and Dave all looked at him.

"You believe us now?" Dave asked.

Dean shrugged, "We'll see."

"Anyway, what other options do we have?" Alex asked.

"None that I know of…But don't worry, Aaron and I are more than a match for this thing. Why do you think he drew us away from you in the first place?" Dave replied confidently. "Alex, Dean, we might need your help luring him in, if he knows Aaron and I are with you he won't come anywhere near you until he's sure we're gone."

"What do you need us to do?" Alex and Dean asked in unison, the two of them ready for anything and definitely ready to be back inside themselves again.

XXX

"Alright, you're going to have too hold him off long enough for us to get back." Dave said, looking at Alex and Dean.

"Which hopefully won't be too hard since, apparently, you can physically touch him. Just remember he can use telekinesis, so watch out for flying objects…" Aaron added.

"Don't let him get you alone, stick together." Dave told the two of them.

"And try not to let him get anywhere near Sam, it's a possibility that whoever's being possessed may get hurt." Aaron put in.

"The demon may choose to target Sam just for that reason too. Good thinking." Dave replied thoughtfully.

"Take these," Aaron said, handing Alex and Dean each a small dagger, "and _don't_ lose them! They belong to Dave and I; Angels are issued one when they first begin their job as a guardian and if we lose them we don't get another. Anyway, if you pin the demon with one of these and he won't know what hit him."

Alex took it gingerly, removing the sheath and inspecting the knife closely. Her jaw dropped slightly when she brought it close to her face; the blade itself looked to be made of diamond and the hilt was made of another kind of precious stone, probably tanzanite, with an inlaid piece of topaz. Alex squinted and saw small symbols carved on the aqua colored topaz stones; on the first was two interlocking triangles that formed a star shape. The Seal of Solomon, used to invoke the Archangels and protect against black magic and the power of evil.

The second was a Pentagram, also known as Druid's Foot; a five sided star that protects against witchcraft. Alex remembered reading it was also supposed to return bad energy to the sender.

And the third piece of topaz had an "M" like shape on it which Alex didn't recognize, she nudged Dean and motioned for him to look at the last symbol.

Dean looked down at Dave's dagger in his own hands, but rather than answer Alex's silent question he just said, "The Seal of Solomon, Pentagram, these are some powerful symbols."

"It's what we stand for, what we fight for." Dave said dutifully.

"The last is called the Mannaz. It's a rune that represents the higher self, it protects against interference with your connection to God." Aaron explained.

Dean finally caved on his reluctance to trust these two new strangers, though he didn't say it aloud. They claimed to be angels, and those three symbols pointed to that claim being completely true. Dean caught Dave's gaze and held it as he smoothly slipped the sheathed blade into a back pocket and pulled his shirt down to cover it; it was a silent exchange of trust between the two of them.

"So, let's go over this one more time. We get out of here-" Dave started, but Alex interrupted.

"Where exactly are you going again?" She asked, sounding innocent.

"Nice try. You'll find out sooner or later, I'd rather it was later though." Aaron told her with a grin.

"Aw, come on! I mean, technically we _are_ dead, aren't we?" Alex said.

Aaron and Dave both raised an eyebrow at her, and Alex shut up.

"Anyway, Aaron and I are going" Dave gazed at Alex, smirking, "_up_, and once we're gone we'll be off the demon's radar; he won't be able to feel our presence again until it's too late. I'm guessing he'll probably just assume we're checking in with the Boss and be on the two of you like a fat kid on a cupcake. You keep yourselves intact just long enough for us to beam back down here and save your hides. Now, we've got some pretty strong stuff magic on our side, not the regular Devil's Snare mojo you hunters use, so don't you worry about the demon being able to escape our trap. Aaron and I will, uh, _ask nicely_ for him to let the two of you go." Dave grinned at that, no doubt he was eager to kick this demon's ass for interfering with his charges. "Then once you two pop back into your bodies, we'll finish him off, for good."

"You probably won't be able to understand the entire process, it'll most likely just sound like one big hurricane to you both, mixed with a lot of different sights. If something looks like it's going wrong, _don't_ try to help us, we'll be fine. Remember, we're here to protect you, not the other way around." Aaron told them.

"Any questions?" Dave asked, giving Alex and Dean an opening to clear up any blurry parts of the plan that they may not have understood.

"What if things _don't_ go as planned though, you can't expect us to just stand around and watch you get yourselves killed. It's not in our nature, you of all people should know that." Alex asked Dave and Aaron.

"First of all, we're already dead, so we can't exactly die again." Aaron told her, not telling her that it was only half true and that Angels could get hurt beyond a point of repair, and that once that's done, there wouldn't be another afterlife. "Just don't think about it too much, okay? If something happens to us, there are backup angels Boss can send down to help you. Any more questions?"

"No, we've got it." Dean replied, feeling a bit uneasy about what the two Angels may be getting themselves into, "How do we know the demon's gotten out of the salt ring yet?"

"He's not stupid, something that simple wouldn't have held him for more than ten minutes, if that." Aaron said, looking at the clock, "And it's been almost an hour since Alex fought him."

Alex glanced up at Dean, her mind was racing, preparing itself for the surge of adrenaline that was building up in her stomach; she was nervous. But Dean looked completely cool and collected; Alex admired that about Dean, no matter the situation, he always seemed to be so confident that the outcome would be what he was aiming for.

"Then you two should go, before he catches on to us." Dean replied, striding over to the couch and sitting down. "Meanwhile, we'll be here," He gave Alex a self-assured grin, "waiting patiently for our little bundle of demonic fun to arrive."

XXX

"Something doesn't feel right about this, Dean." Alex said quietly, crossing her arms over her chest and walking over to the window that over-looked the visitor parking lot.

Dean was still sitting on the couch as he nodded his head slowly in agreement; there was something in the air that just felt _wrong_ and it was making him even more uneasy than he had been after Dave and Aaron disappeared. Dean turned his head toward Alex and watched her for a minute; her face looked pale, she kept shifting her weight from one foot to the other, her right hand was crossed over to her left side and she was drumming her fingers slowly on the left side of her ribs. A large piece of hair had fallen out of her pony tail and obscured the left side of Alex's face so Dean couldn't see her eyes, but he could see that she was frowning, her light pink lips slightly pursed.

Alex gazed down over all the vehicles in the lot, looking for Evan's silver Mercedes, Dean's Impala, or her own Mustang; she didn't see any of them and hoped that it meant that Evan and Sam were still gone and hadn't parked in another parking around the hospital.

"Hey," Dean reached over and gently grabbed Alex's wrist, "come here." He let go and let her twist around and face him before he grasped her wrist again and tugged lightly on her arm to urge her to sit down next to him. Alex glanced around the room nervously and sat stiffly on the edge of the couch cushion.

"Just breath, okay? We're going to be fine, we're together, right? What's the worse that could happen?" Dean said, trying to be comforting.

"Don't say that, you'll jinx us…" Alex muttered, staring anxiously at all the shadows and empty corners of the room.

"Alex." Dean cupped a hand to her cheek and turned her face toward his, "We'll be alright, I won't let anything happen to you."

Alex gave him a small smile, and opened her mouth to say something, but wasn't sure how to respond to him. She gazed intently into his hazel eyes and the only thing she could think of was, "I love you."

"Yea, well, I'm a loveable guy." Dean told her, grinning.

"Oh, shut up!" Alex said, pushing him away from her, smiling and rolling her eyes, "One second you're all sweet and caring and the next you're -"

Dean pulled her face toward his and kissed her firmly, loving the sweet cinnamon-like scent of her breath. Alex was surprised for a split second and then closed her eyes and returned his kiss passionately until Dean pulled away and finished her sentence for her, "Sexy and irresistible?"

Alex still had her eyes close, the ghost of his kiss lingering on her lips, "Uh huh, that's what I was going to say…" She opened her eyes and watched him.

Dean was lost in the deep blue of her eyes as he replied, "I love you too."

XXX

"Okay!" Alex exclaimed, she'd been slouched boyishly on the couch with Dean's feet in her lap before she leapt to her feet, "Gettin' just a _little_ bored here!"

Dean's legs were knocked to the floor as Alex jumped up, his head was resting on the arm of the couch and both arms were sprawled in either direction. The room was flooded with moonlight, causing tall shadows to stretch across the room.

"It's been hours, and I don't know about you, but I'm about ready to go looking for the damn thing myself." Alex told Dean moodily, stomping to the opposite side of the room only to stalk back to the couch.

"And I could really go for a greasy cheeseburger, but hey, that's right, _we're dead_!" Dean replied, equally touchy after all the tension of waiting around for an attack and seriously craving some fast food and coffee.

"Don't be a smartass, Dean."

"Try not to be a bitch, Alex."

"I can't help it; you just have that effect on me."

"Great, so I'm a smartass by choice and you're just a plain old bitch. We'll make a great old senile couple won't we?"

"Keep it up and I personally guarantee you won't live long enough to find out..."

"You know maybe if you weren't so damn quick-tempered you're parents would still be around and I wouldn't have to deal with you." Dean knew it was a low-shot even before he said it.

Alex was caught slightly off guard at the comment on her parents, but returned to the fight quickly, "Then don't deal with me. Maybe I'll just get back with Evan, at least he doesn't drag me all over the place to hunt God knows what!"

"Oh! _I_ drag you all over the place? You're the one who dragged me and Sam back here, Alex! Demon killed your friends, your old boyfriend calls you up and asks for help, you jump at the opportunity to see your ex-pretty-boy again, any of this ringing a bell?"

"You didn't have to agree to it!"

"Well, forgive me for trusting and wanting to help my girlfriend!"

Alex and Dean each noticed a slight increase in light in the room, but ignored it and went back to trying the give one another a verbal whiplash.

"If that's what you wanted you wouldn't be complaining about it!"

"I'm beginning to think you getting back with Evan would leave me with the better end of the deal."

Alex opened her mouth to tell Dean something nasty, but then closed it.

"What, bitch-fest is over? Damn..." Dean said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

"What are we fighting about?" Alex asked, a look on her face that said _"Huh?"_

"Who cares, at least it was entertaining." Dean replied.

Dean and Alex grinned at each other, they both were just about to say "Sorry." when their attention returned to the increase of yellowish light that they'd ignored seconds before.

"This is a damn hospital, I don't give a rat's ass what time it is, they need to have a doctor on duty twenty four seven."

Alex spun around quickly and Dean's eyes snapped toward the door, the yellowish light coming from the light bulbs in the hospital hallway.

"You do realize that this ward is for permanent residents, right?"

"I don't think they're really expecting brain-dead patients to pop up at three o'clock in the morning."

Evan, Sam, and John walked in the door, flipping the light switch on the way. John was fuming over the fact that no doctor's were on duty, and only one nurse who had been snoozing when the three of them walked in; Evan and Sam were the ones who'd explained the reasoning behind it.

"Dad!" Dean said unbelievingly.

"Damn…" Alex muttered.

"What?" Dean looked at her curiously.

"Evan and Sam must have gone to meet him, that's why they were gone for so long."

"And that makes you upset because…"

"Because they're here! Dean, we're waiting for a demon to attack, do you really think it's safe for them?" Alex asked rhetorically, she and Dean watched as John stood over Dean's bed and gently pulled his blanket up slightly while Evan and Sam weren't looking.

Dean frowned, "It's been hours though, maybe it won't even show up."

"Or maybe it was waiting for this to happen." Alex barely had the words out of her mouth when something hit her hard in the stomach, forcing her to double over painfully.

"Alex!" Dean shouted, springing off of the couch toward her, only to be struck heavily in the chest and sent backwards.

Alex clutched her stomach, and Dean gasped for breath. Alex looked down at her stomach and saw a dark, murky substance leak through over her hands from the wound on her stomach, it felt cold and slimy, but even though it felt like a liquid, it was almost smoke-like.

Dean closed his eyes and fought the pain in his chest as he inhaled and exhaled sharply; slowly he began to sink down to his knees.

"Dean!" Alex whispered urgently, unable to fill her lungs with enough air to scream, every breath coming in painful waves.

The two of them heard an angry shout behind them and looked back to see John dodging toward Sam and Evan; Evan was forcing himself back to his feet after having been thrown violently and Sam was struggling to get away from a tall, black-green figure. He was waving his arms madly, and Dean and Alex knew that Sam was unable to see his assailant.

Seeing Sam under attack made a bubble of rage form in the pit of Dean's stomach and he fought back to his feet, rushing toward his little brother and throwing his shoulders into the demons stomach.

Alex wasn't sure if it was the fact that they were ghosts, or that Dean was just that pissed off, but he was able to hit the demon with enough force to knock it away from Sam easily. Dean swiftly took the dagger that Dave had given to him and rammed it into the demon's abdomen, then backing off slightly when the demon writhed and shrieked in pain and anger at the brutal assault.

Alex ignored the pain in her stomach and hurried to Dean's aid. Alex and Dean ducked and dodged new blows from the demon, blocking attacks for one another, and stabbing with the daggers whenever they found an opening, for what seemed like ages when Dave and Aaron finally showed up.

Aaron had a deep gash running from the top left side of his forehead to a little past the middle of his cheek, blood flecked along his t-shirt and arms. Dave had a cut lip, a slash running down his right arm, and blood soaked and torn jeans.

"What the hell happened!?" Alex asked as Aaron and Dave leapt between she, Dean, and the demon.

"Apparently, this sorry son of a bitch has accomplices. They ambushed us on our way down here, we've got other Angels taking care of them for us." Dave said hurriedly, then returned his complete attention to the demon, speaking in a language neither Dean nor Alex recognized, an odd, illuminated and sparkling writing sneaking away from Dave's hands and encircling the demon.

"Boss was pissed." Aaron said, smirking, "Demons have never been able to get that close to the" he paused, thinking of a word to describe where they'd been, "upstairs before. There aren't _just_ other Angels taking care of them for us, Boss came down himself. Whoever thinks he 'forgives all' never saw him punishing a demon." Aaron was still grinning, apparently thinking about demons being torn limb from limb by the Big Guy as he turned in to help Dave. "You two stay back!"

Alex and Dean were both weak, but struggled away from the two Angels and the demon. Sam, Evan, and John all looked confused; the three of them could tell something was going on, but only saw bits and pieces of it and heard wind and voices screaming throughout the room.

Aaron and Dave were having an easy time, the demon cringed and writhed in the center of their trap as they spoke commandingly in that strange language. Then, before either had a chance to even know what was going on, they woke up.

Alex ripped the oxygen mask off of her face and practically flew out of bed while, across the room, Dean was tearing the needle out of the crook of his arm and following suit.

John, Evan, and Sam looked completely shocked and confused; but Alex and Dean ignored them. They looked wildly around the room for Aaron, Dave, and the demon, but saw and heard none of what they were searching for.

"What happened?!" Dean asked.

"I don't know, I don't know." Alex replied, "Do you think they're alright?"

Dean calmed down slightly, "We are, so I'm guessing they are too."

Alex felt her stomach, but didn't feel any wound there, and she glanced at Dean's chest and saw no sign of an injury on him either.

"Alex! Dean!" Sam said incredulously.

"Are you okay?" Evan inquired.

"Who's 'they'?" John asked.

Alex and Dean just stared at each other, letting the adrenaline wear off slowly.

XXX

Aaron picked himself easily up off the ground and wiped away the blood on his lip, grinning at Dave, "Well, that wasn't so hard."

Dave rolled his eyes at the younger Angel, massaging a sore spot on his arm, "It might not be over yet, Aaron, we should check on Boss and the Angels before you say that."

"Oh, come on, you really need to relax a little bit, you know? Have some fun, live a little!"

Dave stared at him with one raised eyebrow.

"Ok…so not literally _live_, but you know what I mean." Aaron said, shaking his head.

"Incoming." Dave told Aaron, the two of them sensing another Angel's approach. They turned toward a spot in the middle of the room where a short, thin, red-headed woman appeared.

"We need you boys upstairs, Boss called an emergency meeting."

"Well hello to you too, Danielle." Aaron said teasingly.

"What's the meeting about?" Dave asked.

"The demons killed three Angels when they breached the border, so I'm betting Boss wants us to go over stricter security. He sent a messenger to the Basement to warn _him_," Danielle spat out the word _him_ as if it tasted like sour milk, "that if it happened again Boss wouldn't be so kind the next time."

Aaron and Dave exchanged worried looks, then gazed back at Danielle.

"They killed the Angel; said they were sick of waiting for someone to make the first move."

"Damn it…" Dave cursed quietly, dropping his head in respect for the four Angels killed in the attack.

"You two should have been more careful. You know the guards have to let the border's security down when Angels pass, but you didn't check for demons before returning down here to help your charges." Danielle told them sadly, "Look, finish up here and I'll see you upstairs, alright? Oh, and, you might want to pay attention to what your charges are saying."

Aaron and Dave turned around and listened to Alex and Dean for a few seconds.

"We have guardian Angels, Aaron and Dave, we've got to make sure they're alright!" Alex was saying to John, Sam, and Evan.

"Guardian -" John started disbelievingly.

"Angels." Dean finished, "Yea, I didn't believe at first either. They saved our lives though."

"Oops…" Aaron said, then told Danielle quickly, "We'll see you upstairs!"

Danielle rolled her eyes, then disappeared.

XXX

"We'd appreciate it if you didn't go telling everyone about us." Dave said, making Alex, Dean, John, Sam, and Evan all whip around to look at him.

"Who are you?!" John said, reaching instinctively for the gun hidden in his coat.

"Aaron, Dave! Are you two okay?" Alex asked urgently.

"We're fine, there's some problems upstairs, four Angels were killed in the attack." Dave said sadly.

"Attack? What'd you mean?" Dean asked.

"They used us to get upstairs, we were too worried about saving the two of you and weren't paying attention." Dave told him.

"But there's no point in telling you everything, you won't remember it anyway." Aaron said, a slight smile on his face.

"Could you maybe _not_ talk in riddles?" Alex told him impatiently.

Dave shook his head, also smiling, "We can't let you remember us. We've had Angels revealed to their charges before, and afterward the charges always tend to be more reckless because they think they're invincible."

"And the four of you are reckless enough as it is." Aaron said to John, Sam, Dean and Alex. "Not that I'm complaining, it keeps things interesting."

"Could I have that dagger back, Alex?" Aaron asked, holding a hand out to her. Alex placed it in his hand while Dean did the same with Dave.

"You do realize you _aren't_ the Men in Black, right?" Dean asked them, grinning in belief that they were just joking around, "You can't just erase our memories."

"Good, if you really think that then maybe afterward you'll be less likely to dig up the truth." Dave told him.

"See ya on the other side." Aaron said, smiling and giving them all a small wave goodbye.


End file.
